The Economic Effect of Immigration Policies: Analyzing and Simulating the U.S. Case

Andri Chassamboulli and Giovanni Peri

University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics from University of Cyprus Department of Economics

Abstract: In this paper we analyze the economic effects of different immigration policies in a model capturing economic and institutional features crucial to understand the migrant flows into the US. We explicitly differentiate among the most relevant channels of immigration to the US: family-based, employment-based and undocumented. Moreover we explicitly account for earning incentives to migrate and for the role of immigrant networks in generating job-related and family-related immigration opportunities. Hence, we can analyze the effect of policy changes through those channels. We find that all types of immigrants generate larger surplus to US firms than natives do. Restricting their entry has a depressing effect on job creation and, in turn, on native labor markets. We also show that substituting family-based entry with employment-based entry, and maintaining the total inflow of immigrants unchanged, produces a stimulus to job creation and native earnings.

Keywords: Immigration; Networks; Job creation; Unemployment; Wages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J61 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 70 pages
Date: 2019-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int, nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://papers.econ.ucy.ac.cy/RePEc/papers/06-19.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The economic effect of immigration policies: analyzing and simulating the U.S. case (2020)
Working Paper: The Economic Effect of Immigration Policies: Analyzing and Simulating the U.S. Case (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucy:cypeua:06-2019

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