The Impact of Legal Status on Immigrants� Earnings and Human Capital: Evidence from the IRCA 1986

Ying Pan

Departmental Working Papers from Department of Economics, Louisiana State University

Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of IRCA 1986, a U.S. amnesty, on immigrants� human capital development and labor market outcomes. Because of IRCA, the 1975- 1981 arrivals were all legalized by 1990. However, many of the 1982-1986 arrivals remained illegal. Using the California Latino immigrants in Census 1990, I find that the 1975-81 arrivals on average outperform the 1982-86 arrivals in men�s wage, women�s labor force participation rate, and English-speaking ability. This finding is not a general trend of labor market conditions, because the analysis using refugees and U.S.-born Latinos, which are two comparison groups without legal status issue, indicate no difference in outcomes between pre-1982 and post-1982 cohorts.

Date: 2010-02
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lsu:lsuwpp:2010-02

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