IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/jku/econwp/2008_07.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Optimal quota for sector-specific immigration

Author

Listed:
  • Karin Mayr

Abstract

Sectoral labor supply shortage is a cause of concern in many OECD countries and has raised support for immigration as a potential remedy. In this paper, we derive a general equilibrium model with overlapping generations, where natives require a compensating wage differential for working in one sector rather than in another. We identify price and wage effects of immigration on three different groups of natives: the young working in one of two sectors and the old. We determine the outcome of a majority vote on immigration into a given sector as well as the social optimum. The main findings are that i) the old determine the majority voting outcome of positive immigration into both sectors, if natives are not mobile across sectors, ii) the young determine the majority voting outcome of zero immigration into both sectors, if natives are mobile across sectors, iii) the social optimum is smaller than or equal to the majority voting outcome, and iv) sector-specific immigration is not always a substitute for native mobility across sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Karin Mayr, 2008. "Optimal quota for sector-specific immigration," Economics working papers 2008-07, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
  • Handle: RePEc:jku:econwp:2008_07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.jku.at/papers/2008/wp0807.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. de New, John & Schmidt, Christoph M., 1999. "Industry Wage Differentials Revisited: A Longitudinal Comparison of Germany and USA (1984-1996)," IZA Discussion Papers 98, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Klaus F. Zimmermann & Holger Bonin & Holger Hinte & René Fahr, 2007. "Immigration Policy and the Labor Market," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-540-68382-7, December.
    3. Card, David, 2001. "Immigrant Inflows, Native Outflows, and the Local Labor Market Impacts of Higher Immigration," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(1), pages 22-64, January.
    4. Gabriel J Felbermayr & Wilhelm Kohler, 2014. "Immigration and Native Welfare," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: European Economic Integration, WTO Membership, Immigration and Offshoring, chapter 10, pages 335-372, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano & Giovanni Peri, 2005. "Rethinking the Gains from Immigration: Theory and Evidence from the U.S," NBER Working Papers 11672, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. George J. Borjas, 2021. "The Labor Demand Curve Is Downward Sloping: Reexamining The Impact Of Immigration On The Labor Market," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 9, pages 235-274, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:641-692 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Paul W. Miller, 1999. "Immigration Policy and Immigrant Quality: The Australian Points System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 192-197, May.
    9. Klein Paul & Ventura Gustavo J, 2007. "TFP Differences and the Aggregate Effects of Labor Mobility in the Long Run," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-38, May.
    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. Karin Mayr, 2012. "Occupation-specific immigration quotas in political equilibrium," Vienna Economics Papers 1207, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    2. Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano & Giovanni Peri, 2021. "Rethinking The Effect Of Immigration On Wages," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Firms and Workers in a Globalized World Larger Markets, Tougher Competition, chapter 9, pages 245-290, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Francesco D’Amuri & Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano & Giovanni Peri, 2021. "The labor market impact of immigration in Western Germany in the 1990s," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Firms and Workers in a Globalized World Larger Markets, Tougher Competition, chapter 8, pages 223-243, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Alan Manning & Sanchari Roy, 2007. "Culture Clash or Culture Club? The Identity and Attitudes of Immigrants in Britain," CEP Discussion Papers dp0790, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano & Giovanni Peri, 2005. "Rethinking the Gains from Immigration: Theory and Evidence from the U.S," NBER Working Papers 11672, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Nikolaj Malchow-Møller & Jakob R. Munch & Jan Rose Skaksen, 2012. "Do Immigrants Affect Firm-Specific Wages?," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(4), pages 1267-1295, December.
    7. Steinhardt Max Friedrich, 2011. "The Wage Impact of Immigration in Germany - New Evidence for Skill Groups and Occupations," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-35, June.
    8. Biavaschi, Costanza & Burzyński, Michał & Elsner, Benjamin & Machado, Joël, 2020. "Taking the skill bias out of global migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    9. Junko Doi & Laixun Zhao, 2012. "Immigration Conflicts," Discussion Paper Series DP2012-29, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Dec 2012.
    10. Bodvarsson, Örn B. & Van den Berg, Hendrik F. & Lewer, Joshua J., 2008. "Measuring immigration's effects on labor demand: A reexamination of the Mariel Boatlift," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 560-574, August.
    11. Christian Dustmann & Ian P. Preston, 2019. "Free Movement, Open Borders, and the Global Gains from Labor Mobility," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 783-808, August.
    12. Harry P. Bowen & Jennifer Pédussel Wu, 2013. "Immigrant Specificity and the Relationship between Trade and Immigration: Theory and Evidence," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 80(2), pages 366-384, October.
    13. Orrenius, Pia M. & Zavodny, Madeline, 2007. "Does immigration affect wages? A look at occupation-level evidence," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 757-773, October.
    14. Costanza Biavaschi & Michal Burzynski & Benjamin Elsner & Joël Machado, 2016. "The Gain from the Drain - Skill-biased Migration and Global Welfare," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1624, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    15. Fernando A. Lozano & Michael D. Steinberger, 2012. "Empirical Methods in the Economics of International Immigration," Chapters, in: Carlos Vargas-Silva (ed.), Handbook of Research Methods in Migration, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Brücker, Herbert & Fachin, Stefano & Venturini, Alessandra, 2011. "Do foreigners replace native immigrants? A panel cointegration analysis of internal migration in Italy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 1078-1089, May.
    17. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Sara Rica, 2013. "The immigration surplus and the substitutability of immigrant and native labor: evidence from Spain," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 945-958, April.
    18. Giovanni Peri, 2006. "International Migrations: Some Comparisons and Lessons for the European Union," Working Papers 158, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    19. Marco Manacorda & Alan Manning & Jonathan Wadsworth, 2006. "The Impact of Immigration on the Structure of Male Wages: Theory and Evidence from Britain," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0608, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    immigration; political economy; welfare; sectoral mobility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:jku:econwp:2008_07. 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: René Böheim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vlinzat.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.