Does Low Skilled Immigration Cause Human Capital Polarization? Evidence from Italian Provinces

Giorgio Brunello, Elisabetta Lodigiani () and Lorenzo Rocco

No 11062, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: While there is a vast literature considering the labour market effects of immigration, less has been done to investigate how immigration affects the educational choices of young natives. Using Italian provincial data and an instrumental variables strategy, we show that the recent increase in the immigration of low skilled labour has produced human capital polarization, i.e. the contemporaneous increase in the share of natives with less than high school and not enrolled in school and in the share with a college degree or enrolled in college. This evidence is stronger for males than for females. We adapt the standard Card's model of educational choice and spell out under what conditions human capital polarization occurs. We estimate wage equations by gender and find that these conditions are satisfied, especially for Italian males.

Keywords: human capital; immigration; low skilled; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H55 J11 J14 J21 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2017-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eur, nep-lma, nep-ltv and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published as 'Does low skilled immigration increase the education of natives? Evidence from Italian provinces' in: Labour Economics, 2020, 63, 101794

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