The EFFects of Immigration on the Scale and Composition of Demand: A study of California establishments

Francesca Mazzolari () and David Numark ()
Additional contact information
Francesca Mazzolari: Department of Economics of the University of California, Irvine
David Numark: Department of Economics of the University of California, Irvine
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: David Neumark

No HDRP-2009-33, Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) from Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Abstract: We study potential economic benefits of immigration stemming from two factors: first, that immigrants bring not only their labor supply with them, but also their consumption demands; and second, that immigrants may have a comparative advantage in the production of ethnic goods. Using data on the universe of business establishments located in California between 1992 and 2002 matched with Census of Population data, we find some evidence that immigrant inflows boost employment in the retail sector, which is non-traded and a non-intensive user of immigrant labor. We find that immigration is associated with fewer stand-alone retail stores, and a greater number of large and in particular big-box retailers – evidence that likely contradicts a diversityenhancing effect of immigration. On the other hand, focusing more sharply on the restaurant sector, for which we can better identify the types of products consumed by customers, the evidence indicates that immigration is associated with increased ethnic diversity of restaurants.

Keywords: Effects of immigration; ethnic goods; consumption diversitY (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E2 F22 J0 O1 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2009-08, Revised 2009-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-mig
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published as background research for the 2009 Human Development Report.

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2009/papers/HDRP_2009_33.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:hdr:papers:hdrp-2009-33

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) from Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by HDRO/UNDP ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).