The Importance of Timing in the U.S. response to Undocumented Immigrants: A Recursive Dynamic Approach

Angel Aguiar Román and Terrie Walmsley ()

GTAP Working Papers from Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University

Abstract: In an attempt to control the flow of undocumented immigrants, successive US governments have considered everything from large scale deportation, amnesties, expanding visa programs, to fining firms who hire illegal workers. Using a comparative static model, Aguiar and Walmsley (2013), find that amnesties have a positive impact on the US economy. However such policies are one-time changes in the labor force, whose benefits diminish over time, and which are unlikely to stem the flow of undocumented workers or fulfill the demands of U.S. firms for cheap foreign labor. In this paper we use a global dynamic model to investigate the long run implications of three alternative policy scenarios: 1) a one-time amnesty for undocumented workers living in the US; 2) a permanent increase in the number of foreign worker visas; and 3) enhanced border security. We find that an amnesty is much less effective than a permanent increase in visas at promoting growth in the U.S., while enhanced border control by the U.S. is beneficial for Mexico in terms real GDP.

Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lam, nep-ltv, nep-mig and nep-neu
Note: GTAP Working Paper No. 75
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.gtap.agecon.purdue.edu/resources/res_display.asp?RecordID=4266 (text/html)

Related works:
Journal Article: The importance of timing in the U.S. response to undocumented immigrants: A recursive dynamic approach (2014)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gta:workpp:4266

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in GTAP Working Papers from Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jeremy Douglas ().