Heterogeneous Labor Impacts of Migration Across Skill Groups: The Case of Costa Rica
Popular empirical strategies that examine the labor impacts of migrants, like the skill-cell approach, are frequently used to measure the effects of immigrants from a particular skill group on native-born workers with similar skills. I use an augmented version of the skill-cell approach to examine the impacts of immigrants on native workers with similar skills but also across skill groups. I apply this approach to the case of Nicaraguan immigrants in Costa Rica. I find large positive employment and wage effects on high-skilled women arising from low-skilled migrants. These positive effects are derived from both the household channel and the complementary-skills channel. I also find negative but small effects on low-skilled native workers. The results show that immigrants can have complex labor market effects on native workers with own and cross elasticities that can be quite different.
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| Language: | English |
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Inter-American Development Bank
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| Subjects: | Employment Rate, Skilled Labor, Labor Market, Wage, Household Survey, Migration and Migrant, J61 - Geographic Labor Mobility • Immigrant Workers, F22 - International Migration, J60 - Mobility Unemployment Vacancies and Immigrant Workers: General, Employment;International migration;skill-cell, |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0002595 https://publications.iadb.org/en/heterogeneous-labor-impacts-of-migration-across-skill-groups-the-case-of-costa-rica |
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| Summary: | Popular empirical strategies that examine the labor impacts of migrants, like the skill-cell approach, are frequently used to measure the effects of immigrants from a particular skill group on native-born workers with similar skills. I use an augmented version of the skill-cell approach to examine the impacts of immigrants on native workers with similar skills but also across skill groups. I apply this approach to the case of Nicaraguan immigrants in Costa Rica. I find large positive employment and wage effects on high-skilled women arising from low-skilled migrants. These positive effects are derived from both the household channel and the complementary-skills channel. I also find negative but small effects on low-skilled native workers. The results show that immigrants can have complex labor market effects on native workers with own and cross elasticities that can be quite different. |
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