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Immigration and African American Wages and Employment: Critically Appraising the Empirical Evidence

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  • Patrick Mason

Abstract

This paper critically assesses the empirical evidence on the relationship between immigration and African American employment. Studies using various methodologies and data are reviewed: natural experiments, time series, and cross-sectional studies of local labor markets and intertemporal changes in the national labor market. We find that for African Americans as a whole, immigration may have little effect on mean wages and probability of employment. However, there is some evidence that immigration may have had an adverse impact on the labor market outcomes of African Americans belonging to low education-experience groups. However, even this modest conclusion must be qualified: the literature has many unresolved econometric issues that might easily undermine the received wisdom. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

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  • Patrick Mason, 2014. "Immigration and African American Wages and Employment: Critically Appraising the Empirical Evidence," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 41(3), pages 271-297, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:blkpoe:v:41:y:2014:i:3:p:271-297
    DOI: 10.1007/s12114-014-9182-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr, 2011. "Economic Impacts of Immigration: A Survey," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 24(1), pages 1-32, Spring.
    2. Joseph G. Altonji & David Card, 1991. "The Effects of Immigration on the Labor Market Outcomes of Less-skilled Natives," NBER Chapters, in: Immigration, Trade, and the Labor Market, pages 201-234, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Rachel M. Friedberg & J. Hunt, 1995. "The Impact of Immigrants on Host Country Wages, Employment and Growth," Working Papers 95-5, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    4. George Borjas, 2013. "The analytics of the wage effect of immigration," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-25, December.
    5. Abowd, John M. & Freeman, Richard B. (ed.), 1991. "Immigration, Trade, and the Labor Market," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226000954, December.
    6. Mason, Patrick L, 1999. "Male Interracial Wage Differentials: Competing Explanations," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 23(3), pages 261-299, May.
    7. Rachel M. Friedberg & Jennifer Hunt, 1995. "The Impact of Immigrants on Host Country Wages, Employment and Growth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 23-44, Spring.
    8. Simonetta Longhi & Peter Nijkamp & Jacques Poot, 2011. "The Economic Impact of Immigration on the Labor Market of Host Countries - Meta-Analytic Evidence," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 11-103/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    9. Robert J. LaLonde & Robert H. Topel, 1991. "Labor Market Adjustments to Increased Immigration," NBER Chapters, in: Immigration, Trade, and the Labor Market, pages 167-199, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Lonnie Stevans, 2009. "The Relationship Among African American Male Earnings, Employment, Incarceration and Immigration in the United States: A Time Series Approach," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 36(3), pages 151-160, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. E. Wesley F. Peterson, 2017. "The Role of Population in Economic Growth," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(4), pages 21582440177, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Immigration; Unemployment; Race; African American; Latino; Inequality; Dissimilarity; Discrimination; J1; J2; J3; J7; F66;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination
    • F66 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Labor

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