Labor Seminars Amsterdam

Speaker(s)
Joan Llull (CEMFI)
Date
2011-04-19
Location
Amsterdam

This paper analyzes the effect of immigration on wages taking into account human capital adjustments by natives and previous immigrants. To this end, I propose and estimate a labor market equilibrium structural model. On the labor supply side, individuals make endogenous decisions on education, participation and occupation. On the demand side, an aggregate firm uses a technology that combines labor skill units with capital to produce a single output, and accounts for skill-biased technical change. I estimate the model using U.S. micro-data for 1967-2007. Results suggest that immigration reduced wages considerably even though natives adjusted their human capital and labor supply behavior to compensate for the change in skill prices.