Immigration and Labor Market Outcomes in U.S. Metropolitan Areas

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 630-652
Author(s):  
Allen Hyde ◽  
Michael Wallace

Two broad orientations have motivated scholarship on the relationship between immigration and labor market outcomes in the United States. The first, the supply-side perspective, often focuses on how immigration affects a variety of outcomes such as unemployment, casualization, and earnings inequality. The second, the demand-side perspective, generally contends that these labor market outcomes result mainly from economic restructuring that subsequently attracts immigrants to labor markets. Previous studies have often reached divergent conclusions due to differing assumptions about the direction of causality in these relationships. In this paper, we use three-stage least squares regression, a technique that allows for nonrecursive relationships, to adjudicate the direction of causality between immigration and labor market outcomes. Using 2010 data for 366 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, we find support for the demand-side perspective, or that economic restructuring results in higher unemployment, casualization, and earnings inequality, which subsequently increases levels of immigration in metropolitan labor markets.

Author(s):  
Sally Wallace ◽  
Thomas Mroz ◽  
Alex Hathaway

The benefits of a college education are well documented. However, the majority of existing research focuses on students who matriculate soon after high school graduation. There is little empirical evidence illustrating whether a college degree is similarly beneficial to those already in the workforce, particularly individuals over 50. Nonetheless, the coming years will see the dramatic growth of older individuals, many of whom will continue to be active in the labor force, and policymakers would benefit from effective strategies to improve the labor market outcomes of older individuals. This research proposes to evaluate the labor market outcomes of individuals in Georgia who obtain a bachelor’s degree at age 50 or older by merging state-level individual level labor force (Dpt of Labor) with individual level educational data from the University System of Georgia (USG). Specifically, we explore whether these later-age degrees result in employment opportunities with higher wages and increased retention in the labor force beyond the traditional retirement age of 65 than those who do not attain a bachelor’s degree.  The results will provide policymakers across the United States with information to make informed decisions regarding higher education incentives and policies for older students.


1998 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert F. Schoeni

Forty-two percent of immigrant workers in the United States are women, yet almost all of the evidence on the economic performance of immigrants is based on analyses of men. This study begins to fill the void by examining differences in a wide array of labor market outcomes between U.S.-born and immigrant women, and among immigrant women born in different countries or regions of the world, using the 1970, 1980 and 1990 censuses. Immigrant women were less likely to participate in the labor force, and this gap increased to 7 percentage points by 1990. However, the share of self-employed and the number of weeks and hours worked among employed women were roughly the same for immigrants and natives throughout the 1970–1990 period. The gap in unemployment and weekly wages widened in favor of natives between 1970 and 1990, with a gap in median wages of 14 percent in 1990. However, immigrants born in the United Kingdom and Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines, and the Middle East have had steady or improved wages and unemployment relative to U.S.-born women. At the same time, immigrants from Mexico and Central America, who now represent one-quarter of all immigrant women, have experienced relatively high unemployment and low earnings, and these differences have increased, with the wage gap reaching 35 percent in 1990. Disparities in completed years of schooling can explain a substantial share of the differences in labor market outcomes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 1001-1033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Long ◽  
Henry Siu

We construct longitudinal data from U.S. census records to study the economics of the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s. Most of our findings contradict long-standing perceptions. While migration rates were high relative to elsewhere in the United States, they were similar to migration rates from the region in the 1920s. Relative to other occupations, farmers were the least likely to move. Furthermore, migrants from the Dust Bowl were not exceptionally likely to move to California. Finally, there was negligible migrant selectivity, and migration was not associated with long-lasting negative labor market outcomes; indeed, for farmers, the gains from migration were positive.


2013 ◽  
Vol 128 (2) ◽  
pp. 531-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Crépon ◽  
Esther Duflo ◽  
Marc Gurgand ◽  
Roland Rathelot ◽  
Philippe Zamora

Abstract This article reports the results from a randomized experiment designed to evaluate the direct and indirect (displacement) impacts of job placement assistance on the labor market outcomes of young, educated job seekers in France. We use a two-step design. In the first step, the proportions of job seekers to be assigned to treatment (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%) were randomly drawn for each of the 235 labor markets (e.g., cities) participating in the experiment. Then, in each labor market, eligible job seekers were randomly assigned to the treatment, following this proportion. After eight months, eligible, unemployed youths who were assigned to the program were significantly more likely to have found a stable job than those who were not. But these gains are transitory, and they appear to have come partly at the expense of eligible workers who did not benefit from the program, particularly in labor markets where they compete mainly with other educated workers, and in weak labor markets. Overall, the program seems to have had very little net benefits.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document