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A firm level perspective on migration

Author

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  • Giulia BETTIN

    (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali)

  • Alessia LO TURCO

    (Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Economia)

  • Daniela MAGGIONI

    (Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Economia)

Abstract

We address the role of migrant workers from extra-EU countries in Italian manufacturing production at the firm-level. Cross price and demand elasticities confirm the complementarity found in previous studies between migrants and natives, which holds when native workers are split into white and blue collars. However, when measuring how the ratio of domestic to migrant (migrant to domestic) workers changes in response to a change in the migrant (domestic) wage - Morishima Elasticity of Substitution - we find that the two labour inputs are substitutes. We further analyse the effect of the use of foreign labour in manufacturing firms on the industry composition. We find that, ceteris paribus, had migrant labour not grown in our sample period, the weight of Low Skill intensive sectors would have been approximately 2% lower and the white to blue collars ratio would have been slightly higher than observed, even accounting for the complementarity between natives and migrants.

Suggested Citation

  • Giulia BETTIN & Alessia LO TURCO & Daniela MAGGIONI, 2011. "A firm level perspective on migration," Working Papers 360, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    • Handle: RePEc:anc:wpaper:360
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    2. Haller, Stefanie A. & Hyland, Marie, 2014. "Capital–energy substitution: Evidence from a panel of Irish manufacturing firms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 501-510.
    3. Stefania Borelli & Giuseppe De Arcangelis, 2016. "Migration, Labor Tasks and Production Structure in Europe," Working Papers 4/16, Sapienza University of Rome, DISS.
    4. Eralba CELA & Tineke FOKKEMA & Elena AMBROSETTI, 2012. "Links Between Transnationalism Integration and Duration of Residence: The Case of eastern European Migrants in Italy," Working Papers 386, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    5. Lenzu, Simone & Tedeschi, Gabriele, 2012. "Systemic risk on different interbank network topologies," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(18), pages 4331-4341.
    6. Giuliano Conti & Alessia Lo Turco & Daniela Maggioni, 2014. "Rethinking the import-productivity nexus for Italian manufacturing," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(4), pages 589-617, November.
    7. Giuseppe Arcangelis & Edoardo Porto & Gianluca Santoni, 2015. "Immigration and manufacturing in Italy: evidence from the 2000s," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 42(2), pages 163-187, June.
    8. Alberto Russo, 2014. "A Stochastic Model of Wealth Accumulation with Class Division," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(1), pages 1-35, February.
    9. De Arcangelis, Giuseppe & Di Porto, Edoardo & Santoni, Gianluca, 2015. "Migration, labor tasks and production structure," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 156-169.
    10. Elena AMBROSETTI & Eralba CELA & Tineke FOKKEMA, 2011. "The Remittances Behaviour of the Second Generation in Europe: Altruism or Self-Interest?," Working Papers 368, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    11. Alessandro STERLACCHINI, 2012. "Patent Oppositions as Competitive Tools: An Analysis of the Major Players in the European Market of White Goods," Working Papers 374, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    12. Esra Karapınar Kocağ & Yutong Li & Cristina Raluca Gh. Popescu, 2022. "The Determinants of Immigrants’ Skill Composition," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-18, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Migrant workers; elasticity of substitution; manufacturing production technology;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General

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