Low-wage jobs, foreign-born workers, and firm performance

Catalina Amuedo Dorantes, Esther Arenas-Arroyo, Parag Mahajan and Bernhard Schmidpeter
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Esther Arenas-Arroyo

No 1040, Ruhr Economic Papers from RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen

Abstract: We examine how migrant workers impact firm performance using administrative data from the United States. Exploiting an unexpected change in firms' likelihood of securing low-wage workers through the H-2B visa program, we find limited crowd-out of other forms of employment and no impact on average pay at the firm. Yet, access to H-2B workers raises firms' annual revenues and survival likelihood. Our results are consistent with the notion that guest worker programs can help address labor shortages without inflicting large losses on incumbent workers.

Keywords: Guest workers; migrants; employment; firm dynamics; H-2B visa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J23 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-hrm, nep-int and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Low-Wage Jobs, Foreign-Born Workers, and Firm Performance (2024)
Working Paper: Low-Wage Jobs, Foreign-Born Workers, and Firm Performance (2023)
Working Paper: Low-wage jobs, foreign-born workers, and firm performance (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:rwirep:279541

DOI: 10.4419/96973209

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