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Is there monopsonistic discrimination against immigrants? First evidence from linked employer employee data

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  • Jahn, Elke
  • Hirsch, Boris

Abstract

This paper investigates immigrants and natives labour supply to the firm within a semi-structural approach based on a dynamic monopsony framework. Applying duration models to a large administrative employer employee data set for Germany, we find that once accounting for unobserved worker heterogeneity immigrants supply labour less elastically to firms than natives. Under monopsonistic wage setting the estimated elasticity differential predicts a 4.6 log points wage penalty for immigrants thereby accounting for almost the entire unexplained native immigrant wage differential of 2.9 5.9 log points. Our results imply that discriminating against immigrants is profitable rather than costly.

Suggested Citation

  • Jahn, Elke & Hirsch, Boris, 2012. "Is there monopsonistic discrimination against immigrants? First evidence from linked employer employee data," VfS Annual Conference 2012 (Goettingen): New Approaches and Challenges for the Labor Market of the 21st Century 65417, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc12:65417
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    Cited by:

    1. Strobl, Eric & Walsh, Frank, 2016. "Monopsony, minimum wages and migration," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 221-237.
    2. Nanos, Panagiotis & Schluter, Christian, 2014. "The composition of wage differentials between migrants and natives," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 23-44.
    3. Helmut Hofer & Gerlinde Titelbach & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer & Alexander Ahammer, 2017. "Wage Discrimination Against Immigrants in Austria?," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 31(2), pages 105-126, June.
    4. Briggs Depew & Peter Norlander & Todd A. Sørensen, 2017. "Inter-firm mobility and return migration patterns of skilled guest workers," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 30(2), pages 681-721, April.
    5. Hirsch, Boris & Jahn, Elke J. & Schnabel, Claus, 2013. "The Cyclical Behaviour of Employers' Monopsony Power and Workers' Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 7776, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-069 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. de la Rica, Sara & Glitz, Albrecht & Ortega, Francesc, 2013. "Immigration in Europe: Trends, Policies and Empirical Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 7778, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Kuhn, Peter J. & Shen, Kailing, 2014. "Do Employers Prefer Undocumented Workers? Evidence from China's Hukou System," IZA Discussion Papers 8289, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Bachmann, Ronald & Frings, Hanna, 2014. "Monopsony competition and the minimum wage: Evidence from Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100367, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    10. Sharron Xuanren Wang & Arthur Sakamoto, 2016. "Did the Great Recession Downsize Immigrants and Native-Born Americans Differently? Unemployment Differentials by Nativity, Race and Gender from 2007 to 2013 in the U.S," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-14, September.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J42 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Monopsony; Segmented Labor Markets
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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