From Engineer To Taxi Driver? Occupational Skills And The Economic Outcomes Of Immigrants

Susumu Imai, Derek Stacey and Casey Warman

No 1275, Working Paper from Economics Department, Queen's University

Abstract: We examine the ability of male immigrants to transfer their occupational human capital using information from the O*NET and a unique dataset that includes both the last source country occupation and the first four years of occupations in Canada. We first augment a model of occupational choice and skill accumulation to derive predictions about the cross-border transferability of occupational human capital. We then test the empirical implications using the skill requirements of pre- and post-immigration occupations. We find that male immigrants to Canada were employed in source country occupations that required high levels of cognitive skills, but relied less intently on manual skills. Following immigration, they find initial employment in occupations that require the opposite. Regression analysis uncovers large returns to the quantitative skill requirements of Canadian occupations, but no returns to source country skill requirements. Finally, our empirical findings suggests that occupational skill gaps are detrimental to immigrants` earnings.

Keywords: occupational mobility; skills; human capital; immigration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 J24 J31 J61 J62 J71 J80 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 65 pages
Date: 2011-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme, nep-hrm, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:qed:wpaper:1275

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