Full Citation

Title: Immigration displaces women

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2020

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Abstract: I use geographic variation in immigration over time to establish a previously undocumented stylized fact: foreign immigration to the US reduces the employment rates of native female workers. This effect persists across skill groups, has become less pronounced over time, and is robust to the specification used to estimate it, the definition of the geographical area, and the potential for geographic self-selection among immigrants. It also contrasts sharply with typical findings from studies that focus on native men, as well as my own estimates for men. The pattern of declining female employment effects is consistent with well-documented declines in female labor-supply elas-ticities, and I find that the female employment effect is driven primarily by married women and those with children, among whom labor supply is known to be relatively elastic. While I find that immigration does not impact the average wages of either low-or high-skilled native women, there is a pronounced negative wage effect for highly skilled native women who are married or have children, with smaller positive effects for other groups. I argue that the female-male difference in native employment effects cannot be explained by gender differences in native skill distributions. As further evidence of this, I show that the female employment effect is driven primarily by competition from female immigrants.

Url: https://jrgcmu.github.io/fmig1.pdf

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Authors: Gardner, John

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration, Poverty and Welfare

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