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Immigration and skill formation in unionised labour markets

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  • Fuest, Clemens
  • Thum, Marcel

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of immigration on the welfare of the native population in an economy that consists of skilled and unskilled workers. Due to unionisation, the wage rate in the market for unskilled labour is above the competitive level. For a given skill endowment of the native population, we show that immigration reduces the welfare of the host country up to a certain threshold and then increases it with further immigration. For the case of endogenous skill formation, an increase in expected immigration raises the number of skilled individuals in the native population. If the government can credibly commit itself to a certain immigration policy, skill formation of the native population will adjust, so that immigration maybe strictly welfare increasing.
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  • Fuest, Clemens & Thum, Marcel, 2001. "Immigration and skill formation in unionised labour markets," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 557-573, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:17:y:2001:i:3:p:557-573
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    Cited by:

    1. Laixun Zhao & Kenji Kondoh, 2007. "Temporary and Permanent Immigration under Unionization," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 346-358, May.
    2. Moritz Bonn, 2011. "The Effects of High Skilled Immigration in a Dual Labour Market with Union Wage Setting and Fiscal Redistribution," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201121, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    3. Wang, Jun & Liao, Chengjuan & Wan, Xuan & Song, Hui, 2021. "Skill Formation, Employment Discrimination, and Wage Inequality: Evidence from the People’s Republic of China," ADBI Working Papers 1283, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    4. Gil S. Epstein, 2013. "Frontier issues of the political economy of migration," Chapters, in: Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Migration, chapter 22, pages 411-431, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Alessandra Venturini & Gil S. Epstein, 2006. "Migration, effort, and voter sentiment towards temporary migration," CHILD Working Papers wp18_06, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY.
    6. Alexander Kemnitz, 2006. "Immigration as a commitment device," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(2), pages 299-313, June.
    7. Christian Lumpe & Benjamin Weigert, 2009. "Immigration Policy, Equilibrium Unemployment, and Underinvestment in Human Capital," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 23(1), pages 97-130, March.
    8. Puhani, Patrick A. & Frölich, Markus, 2002. "Immigration and Heterogeneous Labor in Western Germany: A Labor Market Classification Based on Nonparametric Estimation," ZEW Discussion Papers 02-01, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    9. Yuji Tamura, 2006. "Disagreement over the immigration of low-income earners in a welfare state," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(4), pages 691-702, October.
    10. Schirwitz, Beate & Dittrich, Marcus, 2006. "A Dynamic Model of Union Behaviour. The Role of an Endogenous Outside Option and Bargaining Centralisation," Dresden Discussion Paper Series in Economics 07/06, Technische Universität Dresden, Faculty of Business and Economics, Department of Economics.
    11. Wido Geis, 2009. "Does Educational Choice Erode the Immigration Surplus?," ifo Working Paper Series 80, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    12. Barbier-Gauchard, Amélie & De Palma, Francesco & Diana, Giuseppe, 2014. "Why should Southern economies stay in the Euro Zone? The role of labor markets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 201-208.
    13. Lumpe, Christian & Weigert, Benjamin, 2010. "Immigration, education and native wage inequality," Working Papers 01/2010, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.
    14. Thomas Moutos & William Scarth, 2002. "Technical Change and Unemployment: Policy Responses and Distributional Considerations," CESifo Working Paper Series 710, CESifo.
    15. Marcus H. Böhme & Sarah Kups, 2017. "The economic effects of labour immigration in developing countries: A literature review," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 335, OECD Publishing.
    16. Giorgio Bellettini & Carlotta Berti Ceroni, 2005. "When the Union Hurts the Workers: A Positive Analysis of Immigration Policy," CESifo Working Paper Series 1421, CESifo.
    17. Fuest, Clemens & Thum, Marcel, 2000. "Welfare effects of immigration in a dual labor market," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 551-563, September.
    18. Theodore Palivos & Chong Yip, 2010. "Illegal immigration in a heterogeneous labor market," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 101(1), pages 21-47, September.
    19. Dai, Tiantian & Liu, Xiangbo & Xie, Biancen, 2013. "The impact of immigrants on host country crime," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 157-161.
    20. Epstein, Gil S. & Hillman, Arye L., 2003. "Unemployed immigrants and voter sentiment in the welfare state," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(7-8), pages 1641-1655, August.
    21. Clemens Fuest & Marcel Thum, 2001. "Gains from migration in imperfect labour markets?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 54(08), pages 28-31, May.
    22. Moritz Bonn, 2011. "High Skilled Immigration Policy and Union Wage Setting," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 147-11, Universität Siegen, Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht, revised 27 Aug 2012.
    23. Tamura, Yuji, 2004. "Referendum-Led Immigration Policy In The Welfare State," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 713, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.

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