“Give me your Tired, your Poor,” so I can Prosper: Immigration in Search Equilibrium

Andri Chassamboulli and Theodore Palivos

University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics from University of Cyprus Department of Economics

Abstract: We analyze the impact of immigration on the host country within a search and matching model that allows for skill heterogeneity, endogenous skill acquisition, differential search cost between immigrants and natives, capital-skill complementarity and different degree of substitutability between unskilled natives and immigrants. Within such a framework, we find that although immigration raises the overall welfare, it may have distributional effects. Specifically, skilled workers gain in terms of both employment and wages. Unskilled workers, on the other hand, gain in terms of employment but may lose in terms of wages. Nevertheless, in one version of the model, where unskilled workers and immigrants are imperfect substitutes, we find that even the unskilled wage may rise. These results accommodate conflicting empirical findings.

Keywords: Search; Unemployment; Immigration; Skill-heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2010-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge, nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Working Paper: "Give me your Tired, your Poor," so I can Prosper: Immigration in Search Equilibrium (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucy:cypeua:12-2010

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