Author(s)
Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano and
Giovanni Peri
Source
Journal of the European Economic Association, Vol. 10:1, pp. 152-197, European Economic Association, 2012
Summary
Calculates the effects of immigration from 1960-2006 on the wages of native U.S. workers of various skill levels.
Policy Relevance
Immigrants at the national level had very small effects on native wages. Immigration policies are likely to have only very small effects on native wage inequality.
Main Points
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This paper calculates the effects of immigration on the wages of native U.S. workers of various skill levels, accounting for the competition effect of immigrants on natives as well as for their complementarity and job creation effect due to the fact that they have different skills from natives.
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There is a small but significant degree of imperfect substitutability between natives and immigrants of any schooling level. This, when combined with the other interactions among workers, implies that in the period from 1990 to 2006 immigration had a small positive effect on the wages of native workers with no high school degree (between 0.6% and +1.7%).
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Immigration also had a small positive effect on overall average native wages (+0.6%) and a negative effect (-6.7%) on wages of previous immigrants in the long run.