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Local Unemployment and the Relative Wages of Immigrants: Evidence from the Current Population Surveys

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Author Info
Barth, Erling () (Institute for Social Research in Oslo)
Bratsberg, Bernt () (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research)
Raaum, Oddbjørn () (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research)

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Abstract

We provide evidence on wage profiles of immigrants using CPS data from 1979 to 2001, 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 largely 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 and that the immigrant-native wage gap is strongly increasing in unemployment. For highly educated immigrants, rates of wage assimilation during early years in the United States are higher the lower is unemployment.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Oslo University, Department of Economics in its series Memorandum with number 20/2002.

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Length: 55 pages
Date of creation: 17 Jun 2003
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:hhs:osloec:2002_020

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Department of Economics, University of Oslo, P.O Box 1095 Blindern, N-0317 Oslo, Norway
Phone: 22 85 51 27
Fax: 22 85 50 35
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Web page: http://www.oekonomi.uio.no/indexe.html
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Related research
Keywords: immigrants; unemployment; assimilation;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
J82 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Labor Force Composition

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.:

  1. 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)
    Other versions:
  2. George J. Borjas, 2000. "The Economic Progress of Immigrants," NBER Chapters, in: Issues in the Economics of Immigration, pages 15-50 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Barry R. Chiswick & Yinon Cohen & Tzippi Zach, 1997. "The labor market status of immigrants: Effects of the unemployment rate at arrival and duration of residence," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 50(2), pages 289-303, January.
  4. Barth, Erling & Bratsberg, Bernt & Raaum, Oddbjørn, 2003. "Local Unemployment and the Earnings Assimilation of Immigrants in Norway," Memorandum 19/2002, Oslo University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  5. Richard B. Freeman, 1982. "Crime and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 1031, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Paul W. Miller & Barry R. Chiswick, 2002. "Immigrant earnings: Language skills, linguistic concentrations and the business cycle," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 31-57. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Ken Binmore & Ariel Rubinstein & Asher Wolinsky, 1986. "The Nash Bargaining Solution in Economic Modelling," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(2), pages 176-188, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Eli Berman & Kevin Lang & Erez Siniver, 2000. "Language-Skill Complementarity: Returns to Immigrant Language Acquisition," NBER Working Papers 7737, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. David Card & John E. DiNardo, 2002. "Skill-Biased Technological Change and Rising Wage Inequality: Some Problems and Puzzles," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(4), pages 733-783, October. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Barth, Erling & Bratsberg, Bernt & Naylor, Robin A. & Raaum, Oddbjørn, 2002. "Explaining Variations in Wage Curves: Theory and Evidence," Memorandum 03/2002, Oslo University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  11. Darren Lubotsky, 2001. "The Effect of Changes in the U.S. Wage Structure on Recent Immigrants' Earnings," Labor and Demography 0110003, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  12. George J. Borjas, 1988. "Immigration And Self-Selection," NBER Working Papers 2566, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  13. Julian R. Betts & Magnus Lofstrom, 1998. "The Educational Attainment of Immigrants: Trends and Implications," NBER Working Papers 6757, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  14. David Card, 1995. "The Wage Curve: A Review," Working Papers 722, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
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  15. 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)
  16. 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)
  17. 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.
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  19. repec:fth:prinin:343 is not listed on IDEAS
  20. Edward Funkhouser, 2000. "Convergence in Employment Rates of Immigrants," NBER Chapters, in: Issues in the Economics of Immigration, pages 143-184 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  21. James Ted McDonald & Christopher Worswick, 1997. "Unemployment Incidence of Immigrant Men in Canada," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 23(4), pages 353-373, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  23. Borjas, George J., 1999. "The economic analysis of immigration," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 28, pages 1697-1760 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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. Christian Dustmann & Albrecht Glitz & Thorsten Vogel, 2006. "Employment, Wages, and the Economic Cycle: Differences between Immigrants and Natives," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0609, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Barth, Erling & Bratsberg, Bernt & Raaum, Oddbjørn, 2003. "Local Unemployment and the Earnings Assimilation of Immigrants in Norway," Memorandum 19/2002, Oslo University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Seik Kim, . "Wage Mobility of Foreign-Born Workers in the United States," Working Papers UWEC-2009-16, University of Washington, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  4. Seik Kim, . "Sample Attrition in the presence of Population Attrition," Working Papers UWEC-2009-02, University of Washington, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  5. Dahlberg, Matz & Johansson, Kajsa & Mörk, Eva, 2008. "On mandatory activation of welfare receivers," Working Paper Series 2008:24, IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. George J. Borjas & Rachel M. Friedberg, 2009. "Recent Trends in the Earnings of New Immigrants to the United States," NBER Working Papers 15406, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Aslund, Olof & Böhlmark, Anders & Nordström Skans, Oskar, 2009. "Age at Migration and Social Integration," IZA Discussion Papers 4263, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Sanromá, Esteve & Ramos, Raul & Simón, Hipólito, 2009. "Immigrant Wages in the Spanish Labour Market: Does the Origin of Human Capital Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 4157, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Bernt Bratsberg & Oddbjørn Raaum & Knut Røed, 2007. "When Minority Labor Migrants Meet the Welfare State," IZA Discussion Papers 2872, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. 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!]
  11. Cristina Fernández & Carolina Ortega, 2008. "Labor market assimilation of immigrants in Spain: employment at the expense of bad job-matches?," Spanish Economic Review, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 83-107, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Stefanie Schurer, 2008. "Labour Market Outcomes of Second Generation Immigrants: How Heterogeneous Are They Really?," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2008n14, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne. [Downloadable!]
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