Labor-Market effects of Immigration: Migration's Impact on Host Countries' Wages and Rates of Employment

• Main Author: Cranston, Emma C
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2016
• Subjects: wages labor market immigration employment borjas; Econometrics; Labor Economics; Macroeconomics
• Online Access: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/752; http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1805&context=scripps_theses

The purpose of this paper is to define and expand upon methods used to determine wage and employment effects of immigration on host countries’ labor markets. We start by examining existing literature, defining theoretical frameworks and exploring some of the empirical methods used to make these estimates. Using pooled OECD data from 2003 to 2013, we then attempt to combine an area-effects empirical model with macroeconomic assumptions about wage and unemployment determinants. Results line up somewhat with existing literature; there is no evidence that wages are affected by migrant inflows, though surprisingly, aggregated employment estimates are much larger than expected.