Task Specialization, Immigration, and Wages

Giovanni Peri and Chad Sparber

Chapter 3 in The Economics of International Migration, 2016, pp 81-115 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: Large inflows of less educated immigrants may reduce wages paid to comparably-educated, native-born workers. However, if less educated foreign- and native-born workers specialize in different production tasks, because of different abilities, immigration will cause natives to reallocate their task supply, thereby reducing downward wage pressure. Using occupational task-intensity data from the O*NET dataset and individual US census data, we demonstrate that foreign-born workers specialize in occupations intensive in manual-physical labor skills while natives pursue jobs more intensive in communication-language tasks. This mechanism can explain why economic analyses find only modest wage consequences of immigration for less educated native-born workers. (JEL J24, J31, J61)

Keywords: Migration; Immigration; Growth; Productivity; Labor Markets; Selection; Immigration Policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 O15 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Related works:
Journal Article: Task Specialization, Immigration, and Wages (2009)
Working Paper: Task Specialization, Immigration and Wages (2009)
Working Paper: Task Specialization, Immigration, and Wages (2008)
Working Paper: Task Specialisation, Immigration and Wages (2008)
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