Analysis of the Economic Impacts of Immigration in the United States
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Date
2017
Authors
McIntosh, Michael
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
In this paper, I attempt to establish a causal relationship between immigration and local economic outputs. My estimation sample consists of national data on each of education attainment, wages, and native employment, organized by state. The sample also contains state- and national-level data on other macroeconomic factors including population, unemployment, Consumer Price Index, and a construction of remittances, that I believe impact the economic outputs. Estimation reveals positive effects of immigration on educational attainment and wages, and an ambiguous effect of immigration on native employment. I then discuss potential theoretical economic explanations for my estimation results, ranging from simple uncorrected endogeneity to labor supply and demand interactions, and a complementarity effect leading to labor specialization among immigrants. In sum, my data shows immigration having positive or neutral impacts on each of the economic outputs listed above. In many cases, I find these impacts can be explained by conventional economic theory rather than issues with the data or estimation methodology used.
Description
23 pages
Keywords
Immigration, Local economy, Economics, Economic output
Citation
McIntosh, M. (2017). Analysis of the Economic Impacts of Immigration in the United States. Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal, 11(1). doi:10.5399/uo/ourj.11.1.3