The Impact of Foreign Labor on Host Country Wages: The Experience of a Southern Host, Malaysia

Prema-chandra Athukorala and Evelyn Devadason ()

World Development, 2012, vol. 40, issue 8, 1497-1510

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of foreign labor on domestic manufacturing wages through a case study of Malaysia, a country where foreign labor has played a key role in manufacturing growth over the past two decades. The main focus of the paper is on an econometric analysis of the determinants of inter-industry variation in wage growth using a new panel dataset. The results suggest that wage growth is fundamentally embedded in the structure and performance of domestic manufacturing. There is evidence of a statistically significant negative impact of foreign labor on the growth of unskilled-worker wages, but the magnitude of the impact is rather small.

Keywords: international labor migration; foreign workers; wages; Asia; Malaysia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Working Paper: The Impact of Foreign Labour on Host Country Wages: The Experience of a Southern Host, Malaysia (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:40:y:2012:i:8:p:1497-1510

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2012.04.025

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