IMMIGRATION, SKILL MIX, AND CAPITAL SKILL COMPLEMENTARITY

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lewis, Ethan
• 署名单位: Dartmouth College
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1093/qje/qjr011
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 1029-1069
• 关键词: UNITED-STATES; wage structure; LABOR; specialization; INEQUALITY; inflows; demand

摘要

Over the past thirty years, U. S. manufacturing plants invested heavily in automation machinery. This paper shows these investments substituted for the least-skilled workers and complemented middle-skilled workers at equipment and fabricated metal plants. Specifically, it exploits the fact that some metropolitan areas experienced faster growth in the relative supply of less-skilled labor in the 1980s and 1990s due to an immigration wave and the tendency of immigrants to regionally cluster. Plants in these areas adopted significantly less machinery per unit output, despite having similar adoption plans initially. The results imply that fixed rental rates for automation machinery reduce the effect that immigration has on less-skilled relative wages.