IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_214.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Immigration and Skill Formation in Unionised Labour Markets

Author

Listed:
  • Clemens Fuest
  • Marcel Thum

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of immigration on the welfare of the native population in an economy that consists of skilled and unskilled workers. Due to unionisation, the wage rate in the market for unskilled labour is above the competitive level. For a given skill endowment of the native population, we show that immigration reduces the welfare of the host country up to a certain threshold and then increases it with further immigration. For the case of endogenous skill formation, an increase in expected immigration raises the number of skilled individuals in the native population. If the government can credibly commit itself to a certain immigration policy, skill formation of the native population will adjust, so that immigration maybe strictly welfare increasing.

Suggested Citation

  • Clemens Fuest & Marcel Thum, 1999. "Immigration and Skill Formation in Unionised Labour Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series 214, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_214
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo_wp214.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilles Saint-Paul, 1994. "Searching for the Virtues of the European Model," IMF Working Papers 1994/046, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Svejnar, Jan, 1986. "Bargaining Power, Fear of Disagreement, and Wage Settlements: Theory and Evidence from U.S. Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(5), pages 1055-1078, September.
    3. Oswald, A. J., 1995. "Efficient contracts are on the labour demand curve: Theory and facts," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 102-102, March.
    4. Michael Burda & Michael Funke, 1993. "German trade unions after unification — Third degree wage discriminating monopolists?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 129(3), pages 537-560, September.
    5. Oswald, Andrew, 1996. "Rent-Sharing in the Labor Market," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 474, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    6. Richard Layard & Stephen Nickell, 1990. "Is Unemployment Lower if Unions Bargain over Employment?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(3), pages 773-787.
    7. Bauer, T. & Zimmermann, K., 1995. "Integrating the East: The Labor Market Effects of Immigration," Papers 5, American Institute for Contemporary German Studies-.
    8. MaCurdy, Thomas E & Pencavel, John H, 1986. "Testing between Competing Models of Wage and Employment Determination in Unionized Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 3-39, June.
    9. Booth,Alison L., 1994. "The Economics of the Trade Union," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521468398, January.
    10. Mazza, Isidoro & van Winden, Frans, 1996. "A Political Economic Analysis of Labor Migration and Income Redistribution," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 88(3-4), pages 333-363, September.
    11. Schmidt, Christoph M. & Stilz, Anette & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 1994. "Mass migration, unions, and government intervention," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 185-201, October.
    12. Black,Stanley W., 2008. "Europe's Economy Looks East," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521088237, November.
    13. Maria Paz Espinosa & Changyong Rhee, 1989. "Efficient Wage Bargaining as a Repeated Game," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(3), pages 565-588.
    14. Nash, John, 1950. "The Bargaining Problem," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 18(2), pages 155-162, April.
    15. Gilles Saint-Paul, 1994. "Do Labor Market Rigidities Fulfill Distributive Objectives?: Searching for the Virtues of the European Model," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 41(4), pages 624-642, December.
    16. Berry, R Albert & Soligo, Ronald, 1969. "Some Welfare Aspects of International Migration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(5), pages 778-794, Sept./Oct.
    17. Brecher, Richard A. & Choudhri, Ehsan U., 1987. "International migration versus foreign investment in the presence of unemployment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3-4), pages 329-342, November.
    18. Robert H. Topel, 1997. "Factor Proportions and Relative Wages: The Supply-Side Determinants of Wage Inequality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 55-74, Spring.
    19. Fuest, Clemens & Thum, Marcel, 2000. "Welfare effects of immigration in a dual labor market," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 551-563, September.
    20. Calvo, Guillermo A, 1978. "Urban Employment and Wage Determination in LDC's: Trade Unions in the Harris-Todaro Model," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 19(1), pages 65-81, February.
    21. John A. Abowd & Thomas Lemieux, 1993. "The Effects of Product Market Competition on Collective Bargaining Agreements: The Case of Foreign Competition in Canada," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(4), pages 983-1014.
    22. Oswald, Andrew J, 1982. "The Microeconomic Theory of the Trade Union," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(367), pages 576-595, September.
    23. Strand, Jon, 1989. "Monopoly unions versus efficient bargaining : A repeated game approach," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 473-486.
    24. Harris, John R & Todaro, Michael P, 1970. "Migration, Unemployment & Development: A Two-Sector Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 126-142, March.
    25. Agell, Jonas & Lommerud, Kjell Erik, 1997. "Minimum wages and the incentives for skill formation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 25-40, April.
    26. McDonald, Ian M & Solow, Robert M, 1981. "Wage Bargaining and Employment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 896-908, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thomas Moutos & William Scarth, 2002. "Technical Change and Unemployment: Policy Responses and Distributional Considerations," CESifo Working Paper Series 710, CESifo.
    2. Laixun Zhao & Kenji Kondoh, 2007. "Temporary and Permanent Immigration under Unionization," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 346-358, May.
    3. Moritz Bonn, 2011. "The Effects of High Skilled Immigration in a Dual Labour Market with Union Wage Setting and Fiscal Redistribution," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201121, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    4. Marcus H. Böhme & Sarah Kups, 2017. "The economic effects of labour immigration in developing countries: A literature review," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 335, OECD Publishing.
    5. Wang, Jun & Liao, Chengjuan & Wan, Xuan & Song, Hui, 2021. "Skill Formation, Employment Discrimination, and Wage Inequality: Evidence from the People’s Republic of China," ADBI Working Papers 1283, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    6. Giorgio Bellettini & Carlotta Berti Ceroni, 2005. "When the Union Hurts the Workers: A Positive Analysis of Immigration Policy," CESifo Working Paper Series 1421, CESifo.
    7. Gil S. Epstein, 2013. "Frontier issues of the political economy of migration," Chapters, in: Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Migration, chapter 22, pages 411-431, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Fuest, Clemens & Thum, Marcel, 2000. "Welfare effects of immigration in a dual labor market," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 551-563, September.
    9. Puhani, Patrick & Fröhlich, Markus, 2002. "Immigration and Heterogeneous Labour in Western Germany: A Labour Market Classification Based on Nonparametric Estimation," CEPR Discussion Papers 3158, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Yuji Tamura, 2006. "Disagreement over the immigration of low-income earners in a welfare state," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(4), pages 691-702, October.
    11. Alessandra Venturini & Gil S. Epstein, 2006. "Migration, effort, and voter sentiment towards temporary migration," CHILD Working Papers wp18_06, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY.
    12. Theodore Palivos & Chong Yip, 2010. "Illegal immigration in a heterogeneous labor market," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 101(1), pages 21-47, September.
    13. Alexander Kemnitz, 2006. "Immigration as a commitment device," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(2), pages 299-313, June.
    14. Christian Lumpe & Benjamin Weigert, 2009. "Immigration Policy, Equilibrium Unemployment, and Underinvestment in Human Capital," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 23(1), pages 97-130, March.
    15. Dai, Tiantian & Liu, Xiangbo & Xie, Biancen, 2013. "The impact of immigrants on host country crime," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 157-161.
    16. Schirwitz, Beate & Dittrich, Marcus, 2006. "A Dynamic Model of Union Behaviour. The Role of an Endogenous Outside Option and Bargaining Centralisation," Dresden Discussion Paper Series in Economics 07/06, Technische Universität Dresden, Faculty of Business and Economics, Department of Economics.
    17. Epstein, Gil S. & Hillman, Arye L., 2003. "Unemployed immigrants and voter sentiment in the welfare state," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(7-8), pages 1641-1655, August.
    18. Clemens Fuest & Marcel Thum, 2001. "Zuwanderungsgewinne bei unvollständigen Arbeitsmärkten?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 54(08), pages 28-31, May.
    19. Wido Geis, 2009. "Does Educational Choice Erode the Immigration Surplus?," ifo Working Paper Series 80, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    20. Moritz Bonn, 2011. "High Skilled Immigration Policy and Union Wage Setting," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 147-11, Universität Siegen, Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht, revised 27 Aug 2012.
    21. Barbier-Gauchard, Amélie & De Palma, Francesco & Diana, Giuseppe, 2014. "Why should Southern economies stay in the Euro Zone? The role of labor markets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 201-208.
    22. Lumpe, Christian & Weigert, Benjamin, 2010. "Immigration, education and native wage inequality," Working Papers 01/2010, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.

    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. Nicholas Lawson, 2011. "Is Collective Bargaining Pareto Efficient? A Survey of the Literature," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 282-304, September.
    2. António Brandão & Joana Pinho, 2018. "Productivity Shocks in a Union‐Duopoly Model," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 86(6), pages 722-756, December.
    3. Frank Scharr, 2005. "Tarifbindung, Rententeilung und Konzessionsverträge als Einflussgrößen der Lohnhöhe in Unternehmen : eine Untersuchung mit Mikrodaten für thüringische Firmen," ifo Dresden Studien, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 39, May.
    4. Paul Heidhues, 2000. "Employers’ Associations, Industry-wide Unions, and Competition," CIG Working Papers FS IV 00-11, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).
    5. Peter J. Luke & Mark E. Schaffer, 1999. "Wage Determination in Russia: An Econometric Investigation," CERT Discussion Papers 9908, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University.
    6. Marcus Dittrich, 2010. "Minimum Wages and Unemployment Benefits in a Unionized Economy: A Game-Theoretic Approach," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 11(2), pages 209-229, November.
    7. Marco Guerrazzi & Pier Giuseppe Giribone, 2021. "Dynamic wage bargaining and labour market fluctuations: the role of productivity shocks," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(8), pages 1-20, August.
    8. Fuest, Clemens & Thum, Marcel, 2000. "Welfare effects of immigration in a dual labor market," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 551-563, September.
    9. Bill Yang, 1995. "Unionized oligopoly, labor-management cooperation, and international competitiveness," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 33-53, February.
    10. Basu, Bharati, 2009. "Another look at mass migration and unions in Western Europe," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 878-885, September.
    11. repec:eee:labchp:v:2:y:1986:i:c:p:1039-1089 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Dube Arindrajit & Reddy Sanjay G., 2014. "Threat Effects and Trade: Wage Discipline through Product Market Competition," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 4(2), pages 213-252, March.
    13. repec:pri:indrel:dsp01cc08hf62w is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Marco Guerrazzi, 2021. "Wage bargaining as an optimal control problem: a dynamic version of the efficient bargaining model," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 44(1), pages 359-374, June.
    15. Dittrich, Marcus, 2007. "Minimum Wages and Union Bargaining in a Dual Labour Market," Dresden Discussion Paper Series in Economics 13/07, Technische Universität Dresden, Faculty of Business and Economics, Department of Economics.
    16. König, Jan & Skupnik, Christoph, 2012. "Labor market integration of migrants: Hidden costs and benefits in two-tier welfare states," Discussion Papers 2012/5, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    17. Harbaugh, Rick, 2005. "The effect of employee stock ownership on wage and employment bargaining," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 565-583, September.
    18. Gilles Saint-Paul, 1997. "Economic Integration, Factor Mobility, and Wage Convergence," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 4(3), pages 291-306, July.
    19. Gene M. Grossman, 1984. "International Competition and the Unionized Sector," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 17(3), pages 541-556, August.
    20. repec:lic:licosd:11101 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Louis N. Christofides & Andrew J. Oswald, 1991. "Efficient and Inefficient Employment Outcomes: A Study Based on Canadian Data," NBER Working Papers 3648, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. repec:ehu:dfaeii:6745 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Janet Currie Neelin, 1989. "What Do (Public Sector) Unions Do? Wage and Employment Determination Among Ontario Public School Teachers," UCLA Economics Working Papers 542, UCLA Department of Economics.
    24. Bauer, Thomas K. & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2000. "Immigration Policy in Integrated National Economies," IZA Discussion Papers 170, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    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:ces:ceswps:_214. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.