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Gender, Selection into Employment, and the Wage Impact of Immigration

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  • Borjas, George J.

    (Harvard University)

  • Edo, Anthony

    (CEPII, Paris)

Abstract

Immigrant supply shocks are typically expected to reduce the wage of comparable workers. Natives may respond to the lower wage by moving to markets that were not directly targeted by immigrants and where presumably the wage did not drop. This paper argues that the wage change observed in the targeted market depends not only on the size of the native response, but also on which natives choose to respond. A non-random response alters the composition of the sample of native workers, mechanically changing the average native wage in affected markets and biasing the estimated wage impact of immigration. We document the importance of this selection bias in the French labor market, where women accounted for a rapidly increasing share of the foreign-born workforce since 1976. The raw correlations suggest that the immigrant supply shock did not change the wage of French women, but led to a sizable decline in their employment rate. In contrast, immigration had little impact on the employment rate of men, but led to a sizable drop in the male wage. We show that the near-zero correlation between immigration and female wages arises partly because the native women who left the labor force had relatively low wages. Adjusting for the selection bias results in a similar wage elasticity for both French men and women (between -0.8 and -1.0).

Suggested Citation

  • Borjas, George J. & Edo, Anthony, 2021. "Gender, Selection into Employment, and the Wage Impact of Immigration," IZA Discussion Papers 14261, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14261
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    Cited by:

    1. Bond, Timothy N. & Giuntella, Osea & Lonsky, Jakub, 2023. "Immigration and work schedules: Theory and evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    2. Lee, Jongkwan & Peri, Giovanni & Yasenov, Vasil, 2022. "The labor market effects of Mexican repatriations: Longitudinal evidence from the 1930s," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    3. Julian Costas-Fernandez & Simon Lodato, 2023. "Distributional effects of immigration and imperfect labour markets," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2301, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    4. Edo, Anthony & Özgüzel, Cem, 2023. "The Impact of Immigration on the Employment Dynamics of European Regions," IZA Discussion Papers 16469, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Lebow, Jeremy, 2024. "Immigration and occupational downgrading in Colombia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    6. Anthony Edo & Cem Özgüzel, 2023. "The Impact of Immigration on the Employment Dynamics of European Regions," Working Papers 2023-20, CEPII research center.
    7. Borjas, George J. & Edo, Anthony, 2023. "Monopsony, Efficiency, and the Regularization of Undocumented Immigrants," IZA Discussion Papers 16297, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    immigration; wages; selection; labor supply; female employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand

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