Offshoring, Automation, Low-Skilled Immigration, and Labor Market Polarization

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Mandelman, Federico S.; Zlate, Andrei
• 署名单位: Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - Atlanta; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve System Board of Governors
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MACROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7707
• DOI: 10.1257/mac.20180205
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 355-389
• 关键词: technological-change; INTERNATIONAL-TRADE; indivisible labor; business cycles; EMPLOYMENT; IMPACT; tasks; DYNAMICS; GROWTH; COSTS

摘要

We show that the observed polarization of employment toward the high-and low-skill occupations disappears when only native workers are considered. Instead, low-skilled immigration explains employment growth at the low tail of the skill distribution. Moreover, while employment rose, wages remained subdued in low-skill occupations. A data-disciplined structural model accounts for this evidence: Offshoring and automation negatively affect middle-skill occupations but enhance employment and wages for the high-skilled. Low-skill employment is sheltered from offshoring and automation, as it consists of manual, non-tradable services. However, low-skilled immigration depresses low-skill wages and encourages native workers to move into skilled occupations through training.