The impact of immigration: Why do studies reach such different results?

Autor/inn/en	Dustmann, Christian; Schönberg, Uta; Stuhler, Jan
Titel	The impact of immigration: Why do studies reach such different results? Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Der Einfluss der Einwanderung: Warum kommen Studien zu solch unterschiedlichen Ergebnissen?
Quelle	In: The journal of economic perspectives, 30 (2016) 4, S. 31-56 PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; gedruckt; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0895-3309; 1944-7965
DOI	10.1257/jep.30.4.31
Schlagwörter	Substitution; Inländer; Migration; Migrationsforschung; Beschäftigungseffekt; Einkommenseffekt; Arbeitskräfteangebot; Qualifikation; Unterwertige Beschäftigung; Auswirkung; Regionaler Faktor; Theorie; Deutschland; Großbritannien; USA
Abstract	"We classify the empirical literature on the wage impact of immigration into three groups, where studies in the first two groups estimate different relative effects, and studies in the third group estimate the total effect of immigration on wages. We interpret the estimates obtained from the different approaches through the lens of the canonical model to demonstrate that they are not comparable. We then relax two key assumptions in this literature, allowing for inelastic and heterogeneous labor supply elasticities of natives and the 'downgrading' of immigrants. 'Downgrading' occurs when the position of immigrants in the labor market is systematically lower than the position of natives with the same observed education and experience levels. Downgrading means that immigrants receive lower returns to the same measured skills than natives when these skills are acquired in their country of origin. We show that heterogeneous labor supply elasticities, if ignored, may complicate the interpretation of wage estimates, and particularly the interpretation of relative wage effects. Moreover, downgrading may lead to biased estimates in those approaches that estimate relative effects of immigration, but not in approaches that estimate total effects. We conclude that empirical models that estimate total effects not only answer important policy questions, but are also more robust to alternative assumptions than models that estimate relative effects." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku).
Erfasst von	Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Nürnberg
Update	2017/2