Full Citation

Title: The Effects of Immigration on Low-Skilled Native Workers in the US

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2017

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: Using data from the US Census’s American Community Survey and Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey, I estimate the impact of low-skilled immigrants on the employment of low-skilled native born workers in the non-tradable sector in the US. Specifically, I look at industries such as mining, construction, transportation, farming, fishing and forestry, maintenance, and extraction. These industries are the least vulnerable with respect to outsourcing (i.e. “shipping jobs overseas”). Therefore, a change in employment in these sectors should result from a change in the domestic labor supply rather than from labor being outsourced. The data are separated into foreign born and native born, and they are further separated by country of origin, educational attainment, and age of worker. I use a difference-indifferences model to determine the effects that immigrants have on the low-skilled American workers. The control group consists of Texas and South Dakota while the treatment group consists of Arizona and Georgia. These states are non-contiguous and have similar characteristics in terms of industries and labor composition, but the treatment group recently passed immigration reform, while the control group did not. The immigration reforms decreased the number of immigrants in the treatment states relative to the control states. Despite this, the empirical results from this paper find no evidence that low-skilled native workers in the treatment states benefitted from immigration reform.

Url: https://news.lafayette.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2017/06/Joshua-Silver-17-honors-thesis.pdf

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Joshua, G Silver

Institution: Lafayette College

Department: Economics

Advisor: James DeVault

Degree: Honors

Publisher Location: Easton, PA

Pages:

Data Collections: IPUMS CPS

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration, Other

Countries: