South-South Migration: With Whom You Trade Matters

In this article, we empirically investigate the role of regional trade agreements as a potential indirect determinant of international migration on a set of 37 Latin American and Caribbean countries between 1990 and 2015. First, we pre-process the data prior to the estimation using a matching sample technique – entropy – and control for observable characteristics. After that, we use a gravity model for migration and solve the zero migration stocks problem by using the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML) approach. Our results deliver consistent estimates and suggest a positive relationship between regional trade agreements and bilateral migration stocks