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Chutes or Ladders? A Longitudinal Analysis of Immigrant Earnings

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Author Info
Darren Lubotsky

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Abstract

I use longitudinal earnings data from Social Security records to study the effect of selective emigration on the measured progress of immigrants to the United States. The immigrant-native earnings gap closes by 10-15 percent during immigrants' first 20 years in the United States, or about half as fast as typical estimates from repeated cross sections of the decennial census. The divergent results indicate that emigration by low-wage immigrants has systematically led past researchers to overestimate the wage progress of immigrants who remain in the United States. Selective back-and-forth migration also leads typical estimates to overstate the measured decline in earnings among successive immigrant arrival cohorts between 1960 and 1980. (c) 2007 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved..

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File URL: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/522871
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Publisher Info
Article provided by University of Chicago Press in its journal Journal of Political Economy.

Volume (Year): 115 (2007)
Issue (Month): 5 (October)
Pages: 820-867
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Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:v:115:y:2007:i:5:p:820-867

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  1. Baker, Michael & Benjamin, Dwayne, 1997. "The Role of the Family in Immigrants' Labor-Market Activity: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(4), pages 705-27, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Robert J. LaLonde & Robert H. Topel, 1990. "The Assimilation of Immigrants in the U.S. Labor Markets," NBER Working Papers 3573, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Chiswick, Barry R, 1978. "The Effect of Americanization on the Earnings of Foreign-born Men," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 897-921, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Bound, John & Krueger, Alan B, 1991. "The Extent of Measurement Error in Longitudinal Earnings Data: Do Two Wrongs Make a Right?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Borjas, George J, 1985. "Assimilation, Changes in Cohort Quality, and the Earnings of Immigrants," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(4), pages 463-89, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Edward Funkhouser & Stephen J. Trejo, 1995. "The labor market skills of recent male immigrants: Evidence from the Current Population Survey," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 48(4), pages 792-811, July.
  7. Card, David & Krueger, Alan B, 1993. "Trends in Relative Black-White Earnings Revisited," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 85-91, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Geoffrey Carliner, 1996. "The Wages and Language Skills of U.S. Immigrants," NBER Working Papers 5763, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Powell, James L., 1984. "Least absolute deviations estimation for the censored regression model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 303-325, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Trejo, Stephen, 2001. "Intergenerational Progress of Mexican-Origin Workers in the U.S. Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 377, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Seik Kim, . "Economic Assimilation of Foreign-Born Workers in the United States: An Overlapping Rotating Panel Analysis," Working Papers UWEC-2008-19, University of Washington, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Yann Algan & Christian Dustmann & Albrecht Glitz & Alan Manning, 2009. "The Economic Situation of First- and Second-Generation Immigrants in France, Germany, and the UK," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0922, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London. [Downloadable!]
  4. Neagu, Ileana Cristina, 2009. "Career placement of skilled migrants in the U.S. labor market : a dynamic approach," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4891, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  5. Kristin Butcher & Anne Morrison Piehl, 2005. "Why are immigrants' incarceration rates so low? evidence on selective immigration, deterrence, and deportation," Working Paper Series WP-05-19, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. David Card & Ethan G. Lewis, 2007. "The Diffusion of Mexican Immigrants During the 1990s: Explanations and Impacts," NBER Chapters, in: Mexican Immigration to the United States, pages 193-228 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. David Card, 2004. "Is the New Immigration Really So Bad?," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0402, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Darren Lubotsky, 2001. "The Effect of Changes in the U.S. Wage Structure on Recent Immigrants' Earnings," Working Papers 837, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Matti Sarvimäki, 2008. "Assimilation to a Welfare State: Labor Market Performance and Use of Social Benefits by Immigrants to Finland," Discussion Papers 454, Government Institute for Economic Research Finland (VATT). [Downloadable!]
  10. Judith K. Hellerstein & David Neumark, 2002. "Ethnicity, Language, and Workplace Segregation: Evidence from a New Matched Employer-Employee Data Set," NBER Working Papers 9037, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  11. Lozano, Fernando A., 2009. "Understanding the Workweek of Foreign Born Workers in the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 4317, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  12. Mario Izquierdo & Aitor Lacuesta & Raquel Vegas, 2009. "Assimilation of immigrants in Spain: A longitudinal analysis," Banco de España Working Papers 0904, Banco de España. [Downloadable!]
  13. Bellemare, Charles, 2004. "A Life-Cycle Model of Outmigration and Economic Assimilation of Immigrants in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 1012, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  14. Blau, Francine D. & Kahn, Lawrence M. & Papps, Kerry L., 2008. "Gender, Source Country Characteristics and Labor Market Assimilation among Immigrants: 1980-2000," IZA Discussion Papers 3725, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  15. Jennifer Hunt, 2009. "Which Immigrants Are Most Innovative and Entrepreneurial? Distinctions by Entry Visa," NBER Working Papers 14920, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Madeline Zavodny, 2003. "Race, wages, and assimilation among Cuban immigrants," Working Paper 2003-10, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. [Downloadable!]
  17. Longva, Pal, 2001. "Out-migration of immigrants : implications for assimilation analysis," Memorandum 04/2001, Oslo University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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