Labor-Market Competition and Individual Preferences Over Immigration Policy

This paper uses an individual-level data set to analyze the determinants of individual preferences over immigration policy in the United States. In particular, we test for a link from individual skill levels to stated immigration-policy preferences. Different economic models make contrasting predictions about the nature of this link. We have two main empirical results. First, less-skilled workers are significantly more likely to prefer limiting immigrant inflows into the United States. The result is robust to several different econometric specifications which account for determinants of policy preferences other than skills. Our finding suggests that over time horizons relevant to individuals when evaluating immigration policy, individuals thank that the U.S. economy absorbs immigrant inflows at least partly by changing wages. These preferences are consistent with a multi-cone' Heckscher Ohlin trade model and with a factor-proportions-analysis labor model. Second that less-skilled workers in high-immigration communities are especially anti-immigrationist. If anything, our evidence suggests attenuation of the skills-preferences correlation in high-immigration communities. These preferences are inconsistent with an area-analysis labor model.

A Theory of Factor Allocation and Plant Size

In this paper we develop a theory of how factors interact at the plant level. The theory has implications for: (1) the micro foundations for capital skill complementarity (2) the relationship between factor allocation and plant size and (3) the effects of trade and growth on the skill premium. The theory is consistent with certain facts about factor allocation and factor price changes in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Finite temperature superfluid density in very underdoped cuprates

The combination of a large superconducting gap, low transition temperature, and quasi two-dimensionality in strongly underdoped high temperature superconductors severely constrains the behavior of the ab-plane superfluid density \rho with temperature T. In particular, we argue that the contribution of nodal quasiparticles to \rho(T) is essential to account both for the amplitude of, and the recently observed deviations from, the Uemura scaling. A relation between T_c and \rho(0) which combines the effects of quasiparticle excitations at low temperatures and of vortex fluctuations near the critical temperature is proposed and discussed in light of recent experiments.Comment: 5 RevTex pages, 4 figures (one new); more discussion and comparison with experiment; version to appear in Phys. Rev.

A theory of factor allocation and plant size

In this paper we develop a theory of how factors interact at the plant level. The theory has implications for (1) the micro foundations for capital-skill complementarity, (2) the relationship between factor allocation and plant size, and (3) the effects of trade and growth on the skill premium. The theory is consistent with certain facts about factor allocation and factor price changes in the 19th and 20th centuries.Human capital ; Labor supply