IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gta/workpp/4266.html

The Importance of Timing in the U.S. response to Undocumented Immigrants: A Recursive Dynamic Approach

Author

Abstract

In an attempt to control the flow of undocumented immigrants, successive US governments have considered everything from large scale deportation, amnesties, expanding visa programs, to fining firms who hire illegal workers. Using a comparative static model, Aguiar and Walmsley (2013), find that amnesties have a positive impact on the US economy. However such policies are one-time changes in the labor force, whose benefits diminish over time, and which are unlikely to stem the flow of undocumented workers or fulfill the demands of U.S. firms for cheap foreign labor. In this paper we use a global dynamic model to investigate the long run implications of three alternative policy scenarios: 1) a one-time amnesty for undocumented workers living in the US; 2) a permanent increase in the number of foreign worker visas; and 3) enhanced border security. We find that an amnesty is much less effective than a permanent increase in visas at promoting growth in the U.S., while enhanced border control by the U.S. is beneficial for Mexico in terms real GDP.

Suggested Citation

  • Aguiar, Angel & Terrie Walmsley, 2013. "The Importance of Timing in the U.S. response to Undocumented Immigrants: A Recursive Dynamic Approach," GTAP Working Papers 4266, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University.
    • Handle: RePEc:gta:workpp:4266
    Note: GTAP Working Paper No. 75
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.gtap.agecon.purdue.edu/resources/res_display.asp?RecordID=4266
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alberto Posso & Nicholas Bodanac & Facundo Palermo, 2023. "The impact of economic hardships on the intent to migrate: Micro‐level evidence from Venezuela," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 653-680, March.
    2. Erwin Corong & Thomas Hertel & Robert McDougall & Marinos Tsigas & Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, 2017. "The Standard GTAP Model, version 7," Journal of Global Economic Analysis, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, vol. 2(1), pages 1-119, June.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gta:workpp:4266. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jeremy Douglas (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/gtpurus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.