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Title: Immigration Responses to Technological Shocks: Theory and Evidence from the United States

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2017

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Abstract: The changes in technology that took place in the US during the last three decades, mainly due to the introduction of computerization and automation, have been characterized as “routine-substituting.” They have reduced demand for routine tasks, but have increased demand for analytical tasks. Indirectly they have also increased the demand for manual and service type of occupations. Little is known about how these changes have impacted immigration, or task specialization between immigrants and natives. In this paper we show that such technological progress has attracted skilled and unskilled immigrants, with the latter group increasingly specialized in manual-service occupations. We also show that this immigration response has helped to reverse the polarization of jobs and wages for natives. We explain these facts with a model of technological progress and endogeous immigration. Simulations show that immigration in the presence of technological change attenuates the drop in routine jobs and the increase in service jobs for natives.

Url: http://lamacro.davidson.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/technology_and_immigration_aug_2017.pdf

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Authors: Basso, Gaetano; Peri, Giovanni; Rahman, Ahmed

Publisher: Bank of Italy

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration

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