Low-wage jobs, foreign-born workers, and firm performance

Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes, Esther Arenas-Arroyo, Parag Mahajan and Bernhard Schmidpeter
Additional contact information
Bernhard Schmidpeter: Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Esther Arenas-Arroyo

No 2023-10, Economics working papers from Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Abstract: We examine how migrant workers impact firm performance using administrative data from the United States. Exploiting an unexpected change in firms' likelihood of securing low-wage workers through the H-2B visa program, we find limited crowd-out of other forms of employment and no impact on average pay at the firm. Yet, access to H-2B workers raises firms' annual revenues and survival likelihood. Our results are consistent with the notion that guest worker programs can help address labor shortages without inflicting large losses on incumbent workers.

Keywords: guest workers; migrants; employment; firm dynamics; H-2B visa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J23 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-hrm, nep-lma and nep-ure
Note: English
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Low-Wage Jobs, Foreign-Born Workers, and Firm Performance (2024)
Working Paper: Low-Wage Jobs, Foreign-Born Workers, and Firm Performance (2023)
Working Paper: Low-wage jobs, foreign-born workers, and firm performance (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jku:econwp:2023-10

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