Watson Senior Fellow Dany Bahar co-authored “Sanctions on Venezuela Are Not Driving Migration to the US Southwest Border: An Empirical Assessment,” which finds that higher oil income in Venezuela is associated with increased migrant crossings at the U.S. Southwest border.
The authors state, “This study explores the empirical evidence about the relationship between sanctions and migration in the context of Venezuela. In particular, we study the relationship between oil production, prices and income (for which their variation could proxy for the imposition of sanctions) and outmigration of Venezuelans to the United States, measured through Venezuelans crossing the US border.”