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Immigration, Skill Mix, and the Choice of Technique

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Author Info
Ethan Lewis
Abstract

Using detailed plant- level data from the 1988 and 1993 Surveys of Manufacturing Technology, this paper examines the impact of skill mix in U.S. local labor markets on the use and adoption of automation technologies in manufacturing. The level of automation differs widely across U.S. metropolitan areas. In both 1988 and 1993, in markets with a higher relative availability of lessskilled labor, comparable plants – even plants in the same narrow (4-digit SIC) industries – used systematically less automation. Moreover, between 1988 and 1993 plants in areas experiencing faster less-skilled relative labor supply growth adopted automation technology more slowly, both overall and relative to expectations, and even de-adoption was not uncommon. This relationship is stronger when examining an arguably exogenous component of local less-skilled labor supply derived from historical regional settlement patterns of immigrants from different parts of the world. These results have implications for two long-standing puzzles in economics. First, they potentially explain why research has repeatedly found that immigration has little impact on the wages of competing native-born workers at the local level. It might be that the technologies of local firms—rather than the wages that they offer—respond to changes in local skill mix associated with immigration. A modified two-sector model demonstrates this theoretical possibility. Second, the results raise doubts about the extent to which the spread of new technologies have raised demand for skills, one frequently forwarded hypothesis for the cause of rising wage inequality in the United States. Causality appears to at least partly run in the opposite direction, where skill supply drive s the spread of skill-complementary technology.

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Paper provided by Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau in its series Working Papers with number 05-04.

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Length: 59 pages
Date of creation: May 2005
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Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:05-04

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Related research
Keywords: Technological change immigration local labor market

Find related papers by JEL classification:
J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
F1 - International Economics - - Trade
O3 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
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.:
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  12. Friedberg, Rachel M & Hunt, Jennifer, 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. DiNardo, John E & Pischke, Jorn-Steffen, 1997. "The Returns to Computer Use Revisited: Have Pencils Changed the Wage Structure Too?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(1), pages 291-303, February.
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  20. Adela Luque & Javier Miranda, 2000. "Technology Use and Worker Outcomes: Direct Evidence from Linked Employee-Employer Data," Working Papers 00-13, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau. [Downloadable!]
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  29. Leamer, E.E., 1995. "The Heckscher-Ohlin Model in Theory and Practice," Princeton Studies in International Economics 77, International Economics Section, Departement of Economics Princeton University,.
Full references

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. Gonzalez, Libertad & Ortega, Francesc, 2008. "How Do Very Open Economies Absorb Large Immigration Flows? Recent Evidence from Spanish Regions," IZA Discussion Papers 3311, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Libertad González Luna & Francesc Ortega, 2007. "How do Very Open Economies Adjust to Large Immigration Flows? Recent Evidence from Spanish Regions," Economics Working Papers 1059, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. [Downloadable!]
  3. Alberto Alesina & Joeph Zeira, . "Technology and Labor Regulations," Working Papers 0729, University of Crete, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Giovanni Peri & Chad Sparber, 2007. "Task Specialization, Comparative Advantages, and the Effects of Immigration on Wages," NBER Working Papers 13389, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Abdurrahman Aydemir & George J. Borjas, 2006. "A Comparative Analysis of the Labor Market Impact of International Migration: Canada, Mexico, and the United States," NBER Working Papers 12327, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Christian Dustmann & Tommaso Frattini & Ian Preston, 2008. "The Effect of Immigration along the Distribution of Wages," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0803, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London. [Downloadable!]
  7. Paul Beaudry & Mark Doms & Ethan Lewis, 2006. "Endogenous Skill Bias in Technology Adoption: City-Level Evidence from the IT Revolution," NBER Working Papers 12521, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Mark Doms & Ethan Lewis, 2006. "Labor supply and personal computer adoption," Working Papers 06-10, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Leah Platt Boustan, 2007. "Was Postwar Suburbanization "White Flight"? Evidence from the Black Migration," NBER Working Papers 13543, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Giovanni Peri & Chad Sparber, 2008. "Task Specialization, Immigration, and Wages," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 00802, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London. [Downloadable!]
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