Mature Systems in Global Markets: The Need for an Institutional Division of Labour

This paper approaches innovation as a need and not as a choice, particularly in the case of mature systems, defined as localized systems of production that are deeply specialised in mature industries. Their only strategy to achieve competitiveness is an innovation-driven shake-out combining new technological patterns with the existing resources and involving local institutions in production in order to avoid an unbearable shock. The Italian case is useful to introduce the idea of an institutional division of labour limited by the extent of the market and the institutional coherence of the system. According to this approach, the innovation policy has also a political dimension, which development and competition possibilities depend on.Mature industry; Innovation; Institutions; Policy

Immigration: The European Experience

This paper first presents a brief historical overview of immigration in Europe. We then provide (and distinguishing between EU and non-EU immigrants) a comprehensive analysis of the skill structures of immigrants and their labor market integration in the different European countries, their position in the wage distribution, and the situation of their children, and discuss the disadvantage of immigrants and their children relative to natives. We show that immigrants – in particular those from non-EU countries – are severely disadvantaged in most countries, even if we compare them to natives with the same measurable skills. We conclude with a discussion of the role of regulations and institutions as one possible mechanism for these findings, and suggest directions for future research.immigration, Europe, integration, institutions

Immigration: The European Experience

This paper starts with a brief historical overview of immigration in Europe. We then provide a comprehensive analysis of the skill structures of immigrants and their labor market integration in the different European countries, their position in the wage distribution, and the situation of their children, and illustrate the economic situation of immigrants and their children relative to natives. We show that immigrants – in particular those from non-EU countries – are severely disadvantaged in most countries, even if we compare them to natives with the same measurable skills. We conclude with a discussion of the role of regulations and institutions as one possible mechanism for these findings, and suggest directions for future research.Immigration, Europe, Integration, Institutions.

Immigration: The European Experience

This paper first presents a brief historical overview of immigration in Europe. We then provide (and distinguishing between EU and non-EU immigrants) a comprehensive analysis of the skill structures of immigrants and their labor market integration in the different European countries, their position in the wage distribution, and the situation of their children, and discuss the disadvantage of immigrants and their children relative to natives. We show that immigrants – in particular those from non-EU countries – are severely disadvantaged in most countries, even if we compare them to natives with the same measurable skills. We conclude with a discussion of the role of regulations and institutions as one possible mechanism for these findings, and suggest directions for future research.Immigration; Europe; Integration; Institutions

Immigration: The European Experience

This paper starts with a brief historical overview of immigration in Europe. We then provide a comprehensive analysis of the skill structures of immigrants and their labor market integration in the different European countries, their position in the wage distribution, and the situation of their children, and illustrate the economic situation of immigrants and their children relative to natives. We show that immigrants – in particular those from non-EU countries – are severely disadvantaged in most countries, even if we compare them to natives with the same measurable skills. We conclude with a discussion of the role of regulations and institutions as one possible mechanism for these findings, and suggest directions for future research.Immigration, Europe, Integration, Institutions.

Assessing the Fiscal Costs and Benefits of A8 Migration to the UK

A8 immigrants who are eligible to receive state benefits are 60% less likely to claim for them than the native population -- and are 13% less likely to do so adjusting for demographics. Since 2004, A8 migrants have made net contributions to public finances. Immigrants also tend to be more highly educated, more likely to participate in the job market, and have much higher employment rates

The effect of immigration along the distribution of wages

This paper analyses the effect immigration has on wages of native workers. Unlike most previous work, we estimate wage effects along the distribution of wages. We derive a flexible empirical strategy that does not rely on pre-allocating immigrants to particular skill groups. In our empirical analysis, we demonstrate that immigrants downgrade considerably upon arrival. As for the effects on native wages, we find that immigration depresses wages below the 20th percentile of the wage distribution, but leads to slight wage increases in the upper part of the wage distribution. The overall wage effect of immigration is slightly positive. The positive wage effects we find are, although modest, too large to be explained by an immigration surplus. We suggest alternative explanations, based on the idea that immigrants are paid less than the value of what they contribute to production, generating therefore a surplus, and we assess the magnitude of these effects

Assessing the Fiscal Costs and Benefits of A8 Migration to the UK

A8 immigrants who are eligible to receive state benefits are 60% less likely to claim for them than the native population -- and are 13% less likely to do so adjusting for demographics. Since 2004, A8 migrants have made net contributions to public finances. Immigrants also tend to be more highly educated, more likely to participate in the job market, and have much higher employment rates

Spending more is spending less: on the desirability of enforcing migration

We study the migration policy set by a welfare maximizing government in a model where immigrant workers differ in their skills and are imperfectly matched with heterogenous occupations. The policy fixes a minimum skill level for legal migrants, and foreign workers that fall below it can only enter the country illegally. We start by analyzing under which conditions an amnesty is desirable compared to tolerating undocumented immigrants. Next, we study when it is preferable to have ex-ante lax enforcement, rather than to carry out costly enforcement. We show that three channels play an important role in this decision: an amnesty is more likely the larger are the output gains brought about by the legalization, the less redistributive is the welfare state and the higher is the expected cost of criminal activities carried out by illegal immigrants. Importantly, we also find that, when an amnesty is desirable, the destination country would reach an even higher welfare level investing in enforcement ex-ante. Empirical evidence based on a novel panel dataset of legalization programs carried out by a group of OECD countries between 1980-2007 broadly supports the role played by the channels identified in our theoretical model.Illegal immigration, Immigration Policy, Amnesties.