Immigration, Household Production, and Native Women's Labor Market Outcomes: A Survey of a Global Phenomenon

Patricia Cortés

No 31234, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Most of the literature on how immigration affects the labor market focuses on the outcomes of natives in direct competition with immigrants. This paper reviews a growing literature on an alternative channel. Immigrants, particularly low-skilled women, are disproportionately represented in the household services sector, a global phenomenon that is seen to some extent in most regions. A simple time-use model suggests that by lowering the price of market-provided household services, immigrant workers allow high-skilled native women to reduce their unpaid household production and increase their participation in the labor market. I review existing evidence that the presence of foreign domestic workers has increased the labor supply of high-skilled native women, has helped narrow the gender earnings gap in high-paying powered occupations, and that these advances have not come at the cost of native women investing less time in their children or having lower birth rates. I discuss the policy implications of these results, as well as some ethical considerations.

JEL-codes: J16 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int, nep-lab, nep-mig and nep-ure
Note: LS
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Published as Patricia Cortés, 2023. "Immigration, household production, and native women’s labor market outcomes: A survey of a global phenomenon," European Economic Review, .

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