Local Unemployment and the Relative Wages of Immigrants

Evidence from the Current Population Surveys

Datos Bibliográficos

ID19315474
AutoresBernt Bratsberg (0000-0002-6874-3412, Kansas State University), Erling Barth (0000-0001-8658-0891), Oddbjørn Raaum (Economic Research Centre)
Año2006
Volumen88
Número2
Páginas243-263
Fecha de publicación2006-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Review of Economics and Statistics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0034-6535 • E-ISSN: 1530-9142
EditorialMIT Press - Journals (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1162/rest.88.2.243
OpenAlexW2076972322
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas19
Referencias citadas21

We provide evidence on wage profiles of immigrants using Current Population Survey data from 1979 to 2003, taking into account that changes in labor market conditions impact natives and immigrants differently. High rates of immigrant wage assimilation, in general, and relatively high wages of immigrant cohorts that arrived during the 1990s, in particular, can to a large extent be explained by a negative trend in unemployment in the data. Relating immigrant and native period effects to local labor market unemployment, we find that wage assimilation among lesser-educated immigrants is negligible. For high-school– and college-educated male immigrants, rates of wage assimilation during early years in the United States are procyclical, suggesting that rising unemployment slows accumulation of U.S.-specific human capital

Current Population Survey · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Human capital · Immigration · Labour economics · Population · Sociology · Unemployment · Wage · Demography · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy