Immigrants Equilibrate Local Labor Markets: Evidence from the Great Recession

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cadena, Brian C.; Kovak, Brian K.
• 署名单位: University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder; Carnegie Mellon University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20140095
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 257-290
• 关键词: internal migration; UNITED-STATES; population; outcomes; college; border; IMPACT

摘要

This paper demonstrates that low-skilled Mexican-born immigrants' location choices respond strongly to changes in local labor demand, which helps equalize spatial differences in employment outcomes for low-skilled native workers. We leverage the substantial geographic variation in labor demand during the Great Recession to identify migration responses to local shocks and find that skilled Mexican-born immigrants respond much more strongly than low-skilled natives. Further, Mexican mobility reduced the incidence of local demand shocks on natives, such that those living in metro areas with a substantial Mexican-born population experienced a roughly 50 percent weaker relationship between local shocks and local employment probabilities.