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Do Immigrants Compete with Natives?

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Author Info

  • Andrea Gavosto
  • Alessandra Venturini
  • Claudia Villosio

Abstract

The paper analyses the impact of foreign workers on the Italian labour market. We address the issue of whether immigrants from less developed countries are complementary or substitutes to domestic workers. We construct a data set on immigrant workers from the Administrative Social Security Archive which starts in 1986, before the general amnesty of 1990-91, when a large share of illegal immigrants were granted working permits, and end in 1995. A two-stage procedure devised by Moulton is applied to yearly cross-sections of wages by industry and region. Our results show that the inflow of immigrants raises the wages of native manual workers (i.e. it has a complementary effect), and this effect is larger in small firms and in the north of the country. We postulate that the positive impact on native wages is due to the existence of labour constraints on the side of firms. Firms are unable to expand their output because they cannot find native workers who are willing to undertake certain (typically low-skilled) jobs. Immigrants help to fill this gap. This view is reinforced by the fact that over a 'crucial threshold' of the share of foreign work (7.7-12 percent) additional inflows in the labour market of foreign work have a negative effect on native wages (i.e. they compete with natives). Copyright Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by CEIS in its journal Labour.

Volume (Year): 13 (1999)
Issue (Month): 3 (09)
Pages: 603-621

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Handle: RePEc:bla:labour:v:13:y:1999:i:3:p:603-621

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Enrico Marelli, 2006. "Globalisation and local labour markets," International Review of Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 16-48, March.
  2. Riccardo Faini & Steiner Strom & Alessandra Venturini & Claudia Villosio, 2009. "Are Foreign Migrants more Assimilated than Native Ones?," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 96, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies.
  3. Gordon H. Hanson, 2008. "The Economic Consequences of the International Migration of Labor," NBER Working Papers 14490, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Epstein, Gil S & Weiss, Avi, 2001. "A Theory of Immigration Amnesties," CEPR Discussion Papers 2830, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  5. Herbert Brücker, 2003. "Die Arbeitsmarkteffekte der Ost-West-Migration: theoretische Überlegungen, Simulationen und empirische Befunde," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 72(4), pages 579-593.
  6. Giulia Bettin & Alessia Lo Turco & Daniela Maggioni, 2012. "A Firm-Level Perspective on Migration," Development Working Papers 328, Centro Studi Luca d\'Agliano, University of Milano, revised 27 Mar 2012.
  7. Adriano Paggiaro, 2013. "How do immigrants fare during the downturn? Evidence from matching comparable natives," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 28(8), pages 229-258, February.
  8. Tito Boeri & Herbert Brücker, 2005. "Why are Europeans so tough on migrants?," Economic Policy, CEPR & CES & MSH, vol. 20(44), pages 629-703, October.
  9. Brücker, Herbert & Fachin, Stefano & Venturini, Alessandra, 2011. "Do foreigners replace native immigrants? A panel cointegration analysis of internal migration in Italy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 1078-1089, May.
  10. Gil Epstein & Avi Weiss, 2011. "The why, when, and how of immigration amnesties," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 285-316, January.
  11. Greenaway, David & Nelson, Douglas, 2000. "The Assessment: Globalization and Labour-Market Adjustment," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(3), pages 1-11, Autumn.
  12. Mocetti, Sauro & Porello, Carmine, 2010. "How does immigration affect native internal mobility? New evidence from Italy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 427-439, November.
  13. Stefano STAFFOLANI & Enzo VALENTINI, 2009. "Does Immigration Raise Blue and White Collar Wages of Natives?," Working Papers 330, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
  14. Tapio Palokangas, 2008. "Self-Interested Governments, Unionization, and Legal and Illegal Immigration," Czech Economic Review, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, vol. 2(1), pages 007-020, March.
  15. Ilaria Mariotti & Giacinto Micucci & Pasqualino Montanaro, 2004. "Internationalisation strategies of Italian district SMEs: an analysis on firm-level data," ERSA conference papers ersa04p436, European Regional Science Association.
  16. S. Longhi & P. Nijkamp & J. Poot, 2010. "Joint impacts of immigration on wages and employment: review and meta-analysis," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 355-387, December.
  17. Dell'Aringa, Carlo & Lucifora, Claudio & Pagani, Laura, 2012. "A "Glass-Ceiling" Effect for Immigrants in the Italian Labour Market?," IZA Discussion Papers 6555, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

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