 Human capital accumulation: Evidence from immigrants in low-income countriesJournal of Comparative Economics, 2020, vol. 48, issue 4, 951-973 Abstract: This paper offers new evidence on the theory of human capital accumulation. The current findings in developed countries have documented that immigrants' earnings growth exceeds that of natives and that immigrants upgrade their occupations over time. Three possible explanations for these observations are suggested in the literature: 1) immigrants accumulate more human capital than natives, 2) immigrants are not able to fully transfer their skills, so over time, they restore the value of source-country human capital, and 3) immigrants are more productive than natives because they are positively selected on ability. This study investigates the labor market outcomes of immigrants in low-income countries and finds that immigrants earn more than comparable natives and work in better-paid occupations. Over time the gap in earnings and occupational distribution between immigrants and natives narrows. This observation is more consistent with the predictions of human capital accumulation theory than with skill transferability and selection theories. Keywords: Human capital accumulation; Selection; Skill transferability; Assimilation (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:48:y:2020:i:4:p:951-973 DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2020.05.009 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Comparative Economics is currently edited by D. Berkowitz and G. Roland More articles in Journal of Comparative Economics from Elsevier |
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