« What is Organic? Powerful Players Want a Say | Main | Volunteer Vacations »

Here's a fascinating new paper by Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano of the University of Bologna and Giovanni Peri of the University of California, which basically says that immigration during the 1990's increased the average wage of American-born workers by 2.7 percent. The exception to this was in the 9 percent of Americans who never made it through high-school, whose wages fell by 2.4 percent because of immigration.

Virginia Postrel at the New York Times covered this one, and in her article, she writes:

"From 1990 to 2000, the number of people working in the United States grew by more than nine million, or around 8 percent, from immigration alone. What effect did all those new foreign-born workers have on the wages of native-born Americans?

The answer seems obvious at first. An increase in the supply of workers should push down wages, just as a bumper crop of wheat drives down wheat prices."

Yet these two economists found the opposite. You can read the article by Ms. Postrel for the synopsis, or get into the nitty gritty with the actual paper.

Name (required)
Email
Website
Remember personal info? Yes   No
Comments

home | music | democracy | earth | money | projects | about | contact

Site design by Matthew Fries | © 2003-23 Consilience Productions. All Rights Reserved.
Consilience Productions, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
All contributions are fully tax deductible.