A review of evidence relating to the elasticity of demand for visas in the UK
A literature review on the indicators used by the Home Office to estimate the behavioural response to an increase in the cost of a visa.
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This report sets out the economic theory behind using elasticities of demand to estimate the behavioural response to increases in the cost of a visa. As a visa is only one element of the total cost or value of coming to the UK, the increase in the cost of the visa should not be considered in isolation. Instead this report considers how the cost or value of coming to the UK has changed and considers the behavioural response of changes in this cost to the activity associated with the visa. This report, therefore, includes a literature review on the indicators used by the Home Office to estimate this response, and finds behavioural response estimates that are relatively inelastic.