IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joerap/v5y2022i1d10.1007_s41996-020-00067-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relative Wages of Immigrant Men and the Great Recession

Author

Listed:
  • Fahad Gill

    (West Virginia University (Tech.))

  • Abdihafit Shaeye

    (Kent State University)

Abstract

Using CPS data from 2007 to 2012, we examine the contemporaneous effect of the Great Recession on the relative wages of immigrant men. Compared to pre-recession period, immigrants see a modest decline in their relative wages during the recession regardless of model specification. After the recession, immigrants’ relative wages largely recover from the recession-induced decline, but the wage disadvantage does not completely revert back to its pre-recession level. Selective in- and out-migration by immigrants or selection of natives into employment do not seem to drive the results. It appears that, during the recession, immigrants may have traded higher employment with lower wages and employers might have been willing to hire them as a cost-saving measure. The results could have implications for how relative wages of immigrants respond to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic Recession.

Suggested Citation

  • Fahad Gill & Abdihafit Shaeye, 2022. "Relative Wages of Immigrant Men and the Great Recession," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-12, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:joerap:v:5:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s41996-020-00067-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s41996-020-00067-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41996-020-00067-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41996-020-00067-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George J. Borjas, 2021. "Does Immigration Grease the Wheels of the Labor Market?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 14, pages 431-484, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Jesse Rothstein, 2011. "Unemployment Insurance and Job Search in the Great Recession," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 42(2 (Fall)), pages 143-213.
    3. Bernt Bratsberg & Erling Barth & Oddbjørn Raaum, 2006. "Local Unemployment and the Relative Wages of Immigrants: Evidence from the Current Population Surveys," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(2), pages 243-263, May.
    4. Chiswick, Barry R. & Miller, Paul W., 2009. "The international transferability of immigrants' human capital," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 162-169, April.
    5. Michael W. L. Elsby & Donggyun Shin & Gary Solon, 2016. "Wage Adjustment in the Great Recession and Other Downturns: Evidence from the United States and Great Britain," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(S1), pages 249-291.
    6. Barry R. Chiswick, 2005. "The Economics of Immigration," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3160.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dustmann, Christian & Glitz, Albrecht & Vogel, Thorsten, 2010. "Employment, wages, and the economic cycle: Differences between immigrants and natives," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 1-17, January.
    2. Maria Balgova & Hannah Illing, 2023. "Job Displacement and Migrant Labor Market Assimilation," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 246, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    3. Dustmann, Christian & Glitz, Albrecht, 2011. "Migration and Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 327-439, Elsevier.
    4. Daniel Rauhut & Birgit Aigner-Walder & Rahel M. Schomaker, 2023. "Economic Theory and Migration," Springer Books, in: The Economics of Immigration Beyond the Cities, chapter 0, pages 21-50, Springer.
    5. Lessem, Rebecca & Nakajima, Kayuna, 2019. "Immigrant wages and recessions: Evidence from undocumented Mexicans," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 92-115.
    6. Haomin Wang, 2019. "Intra-Household Risk Sharing and Job Search over the Business Cycle," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 34, pages 165-182, October.
    7. Roupakias, Stelios, 2023. "Immigrant Assimilation in the Greek Labor Market," MPRA Paper 118351, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Tito Boeri & Jan van Ours, 2013. "The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets: Second Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10142.
    9. Pia M. Orrenius & Madeline Zavodny, 2011. "Immigrants’ employment outcomes over the business cycle," Staff Papers, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, issue Sep.
    10. Illing, Hannah & Koch, Theresa, 2021. "Who Suffers the Greatest Loss? Costs of Job Displacement for Migrants and Natives," IAB-Discussion Paper 202108, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    11. Adriano Paggiaro, 2013. "How do immigrants fare during the downturn? Evidence from matching comparable natives," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 28(8), pages 229-258.
    12. Pia M. Orrenius & Madeline Zavodny, 2010. "Mexican Immigrant Employment Outcomes over the Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 316-320, May.
    13. Balgova, Maria & Illing, Hannah, 2023. "Job Displacement and Migrant Labor Market Assimilation," IZA Discussion Papers 16349, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Kyle Herkenhoff & Lee Ohanian, 2019. "The Impact of Foreclosure Delay on U.S. Employment," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 31, pages 63-83, January.
    15. Eleni Kalfa & Matloob Piracha, 2017. "Immigrants’ educational mismatch and the penalty of over-education," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(5), pages 462-481, September.
    16. Caballero, María Esther & Cadena, Brian C. & Kovak, Brian K., 2023. "The international transmission of local economic shocks through migrant networks," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    17. Rickard Sandell, 2008. "A Social Network Approach to Spanish Immigration: An Analysis of Immigration into Spain 1998-2006," Working Papers 2008-33, FEDEA.
    18. Charles Ka Yui Leung & Joe Cho Yiu Ng & Edward Tang, 2020. "Why is the Hong Kong Housing Market Unaffordable? Some Stylized Facts and Estimations," Globalization Institute Working Papers 380, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    19. Brahim Boudarbat & Marie Connolly, 2013. "The gender wage gap among recent post‐secondary graduates in Canada: a distributional approach," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(3), pages 1037-1065, August.
    20. Jonas Kolsrud & Camille Landais & Peter Nilsson & Johannes Spinnewijn, 2015. "The Optimal Timing of UI Benefits: Theory and Evidence from Sweden," CEP Discussion Papers dp1361, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Immigrants; Relative wages; Recession; Reservation wage;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:joerap:v:5:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s41996-020-00067-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.