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Immigrants and Firms' Productivity: Evidence from France

Author

Listed:
  • Mitaritonna, Cristina

    (CEPII, Paris)

  • Orefice, Gianluca

    (Université Paris-Dauphine)

  • Peri, Giovanni

    (University of California, Davis)

Abstract

Immigrants may complement native workers, increase productivity, allow specialization by skill in the firm and lower costs. These effects could be beneficial for the firm and increase its productivity and profits. However not all firms use immigrants. Allowing firms to have differential fixed cost in hiring immigrants we analyze the impact of an increase in local supply of immigrants on firms' immigrant employment and firm's productivity. Using micro-level data on French firms, we show that a supply-driven increase in foreign born workers in a department (location) increases the productivity of firms in that department. We also find that this effect is significantly stronger for firms with initially zero level of foreign employment. Those are also the firms whose share of immigrants increases the most. We also find that the positive productivity effect of immigrants is associated with faster growth of capital and improved export performances of the firms. Finally we find a positive effect of immigration on wages of natives and on specialization of natives in complex occupations, that is common to all firms in the department.

Suggested Citation

  • Mitaritonna, Cristina & Orefice, Gianluca & Peri, Giovanni, 2014. "Immigrants and Firms' Productivity: Evidence from France," IZA Discussion Papers 8063, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8063
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano & Giovanni Peri & Greg C. Wright, 2021. "Immigration, Offshoring, and American Jobs," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Firms and Workers in a Globalized World Larger Markets, Tougher Competition, chapter 10, pages 291-326, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
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    Cited by:

    1. Jürgen Bitzer & Erkan Gören & Sanne Hiller, 2015. "Absorption of Foreign Knowledge: Firms’ Benefits of Employing Immigrants," Working Papers V-386-15, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Oct 2015.
    2. Giesing, Yvonne & Laurentsyeva, Nadzeya, 2016. "Emigration and Firm Productivity: Evidence from the Sequential Opening of EU Labour Markets," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145850, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Egger, Peter H. & Erhardt, Katharina & Lassmann, Andrea, 2019. "Immigration and firms’ integration in international production networks," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 1-34.
    4. Stephan Kampelmann & François Rycx, 2016. "Wage discrimination against immigrants: measurement with firm-level productivity data," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-24, December.
    5. 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.
    6. Anthony Edo, 2016. "How do rigid labor markets absorb immigration? Evidence from France," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-20, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    heterogeneity; productivity; firms; immigrants; fixed costs of hiring;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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