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Cadena BC, Kovak BK. Immigrants Equilibrate Local Labor Markets: Evidence from the Great Recession. Am Econ J Appl Econ. 2016;8(1):257-290doi: 10.1257/app.20140095.
Cadena, B. C., & Kovak, B. K. (2016). Immigrants Equilibrate Local Labor Markets: Evidence from the Great Recession. American economic journal. Applied economics, 8(1), 257-290. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20140095
Cadena, Brian C, and Kovak, Brian K. "Immigrants Equilibrate Local Labor Markets: Evidence from the Great Recession." American economic journal. Applied economics vol. 8,1 (2016): 257-290. doi: https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20140095
Cadena BC, Kovak BK. Immigrants Equilibrate Local Labor Markets: Evidence from the Great Recession. Am Econ J Appl Econ. 2016 Jan;8(1):257-290. doi: 10.1257/app.20140095. PMID: 27551329; PMCID: PMC4991313.
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Am Econ J Appl Econ. 2016 Jan;8(1):257-290. doi: 10.1257/app.20140095.

Immigrants Equilibrate Local Labor Markets: Evidence from the Great Recession.

American economic journal. Applied economics

Brian C Cadena, Brian K Kovak

Affiliations

  1. University of Colorado - Boulder.
  2. Carnegie Mellon University and NBER.

PMID: 27551329 PMCID: PMC4991313 DOI: 10.1257/app.20140095

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that low-skilled Mexican-born immigrants' location choices in the U.S. respond strongly to changes in local labor demand, and that this geographic elasticity helps equalize spatial differences in labor market outcomes for low-skilled native workers, who are much less responsive. We leverage the substantial geographic variation in employment losses that occurred during Great Recession, and our results confirm the standard finding that high-skilled populations are quite geographically responsive to employment opportunities while low-skilled populations are much less so. However, low-skilled immigrants, especially those from Mexico, respond even more strongly than high-skilled native-born workers. Moreover, we show that natives living in metro areas with a substantial Mexican-born population are insulated from the effects of local labor demand shocks compared to those in places with few Mexicans. The reallocation of the Mexican-born workforce reduced the incidence of local demand shocks on low-skilled natives' employment outcomes by more than 50 percent.

References

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Grant support