Immigration and Firm Performance: a city-level approach

This article analyses the effect of immigration flows on the growthand efficiency of manufacturing firms in Spanish cities. While most studies werefocusing on the effect immigrants have on labour markets at an aggregate level,here, we argue that the impact of immigration on firm performance should n...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mercedes Teruel Carrizosa, Agustí Segarra Blasco
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AECR 2009-10-01
Series:Investigaciones Regionales - Journal of Regional Research
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.aecr.org/images/ImatgesArticles/2009/TeruelySegarra.pdf
Description
Summary:This article analyses the effect of immigration flows on the growthand efficiency of manufacturing firms in Spanish cities. While most studies werefocusing on the effect immigrants have on labour markets at an aggregate level,here, we argue that the impact of immigration on firm performance should not onlybe considered in terms of the labour market, but also in terms of how city’s amenitiescan affect the performance of firms. Implementing a panel data methodology,we show that the immigrants’ increasing pressure has a positive effect on labourproductivity and wages and a negative effect on the job evolution of these manufacturingfirms. In addition, both small and new firms are more sensitive to thepressures of immigrant inflow, while foreign market oriented firms report higherproductivity levels and a less marked impact of immigration than their counterparts.We also present a set of instruments to control for endogeneity. It allows us toconfirm the effect of local immigration flows on the performance of manufacturingfirms.
ISSN:1695-7253