Heterogenity in the wage impacts of immigrants

Abstract

This paper analyses impacts of immigration on individual wages. The empirical analysis is based on the British Labour Force Survey from 1993 to 2005. In addition to mean regression methods, this paper applies a semi-parametric procedure to measure covariates at quantiles of the wage distribution. Results indicate the substitutability of immigrant workers depends on the combination of education and experience attained. Our main finding is university educated immigrants with the least experience expand wages of all UK-born workers. We also find positive wage impacts between workers with the same skill sets and these effects are stronger for immigrants than natives