Productivity of refugee workers and implications for innovation and growth

Occupational sorting, classified by the skill-biased technical change theory, ex-plains the largest share of the estimated wage variation of native and refugee im-migrant workers. Refugee workers are less likely to be employed in high-paid jobs and more likely to be sorted into low-skilled jobs than comparable native-born workers. Within most occupations, the differences are small or non-existent. In several STEM occupations, commonly regarded as strategic for innovation-driven economies and in which many companies face difficulties in recruiting personnel, the gap is modest or even reversed. Considering wages as a proxy for produc-tivity, this paper using Swedish register data has implications for innovation and growth in many OECD countries characterized by an aging population and short-ages of skilled workers.