Research:
Working Papers
- An
Analysis of the Earnings of Skilled
Foreign-Born Females: Do Skilled Immigrant Women Experience an
Double Earnings Penalty?
Abstract. Although a large literature exists on the U.S. labor market experiences of low-skilled immigrant men, relatively few studies have examined the labor market position of highly skilled immigrant women. Census data indicate that between 1990 and 2000, the percentage of foreign-born women with a Bachelor’s degree or higher increased by 43.1 percent, compared to an increase of just 21.6 percent among foreign-born men. In addition, in 2000, highly skilled immigrant women earned 32 percent less than highly skilled immigrant men, 30 percent less than highly skilled native men, but 9 percent more than highly skilled native women. The current study explores the issue of labor market discrimination and examines the extent to which highly skilled immigrant women experience an earnings disadvantage as a result of both gender status and nativity status (U.S. born or foreign-born). Relying on the 2000 Decennial Census 5-percent Public Use Microdata Sample, this study uses an augmented Oaxaca decomposition technique to decompose the earnings differential between highly skilled immigrant women and highly skilled native men into the portion that is attributed to differences in endowments and the portions that are attributed to gender status and nativity status. Controlling for sample selection bias, the decomposition results suggest that highly skilled immigrant women do experience a double earnings penalty. In addition, the findings suggest that nativity status explains a larger portion of the double earnings penalty than nativity status.
-
High-Skill Immigrants in the U.S. Economy: An Analysis of the Impact of High-Skill Immigrants on Native Earnings
Abstract. A large literature exists on the labor market experiences and economic impacts of less skilled immigrants. With the primary emphasis on less skilled immigrants, high-skill immigrants are a less studied segment of the foreign-born population. However, as global competition for the “best and the brightest” workers continues to remain strong and developed countries continue to adjust their immigration admission policies to accommodate talented and skilled foreign students and workers, further analysis of the economic costs and benefits of increased global migration of the highly skilled is warrant. For host countries, at issue is whether skilled immigrants are a greater source of talent that contributes to innovation and productivity, or a greater source of competition that creates displacement and adverse wage impacts for native workers. This study contributes to the growing literature on the labor market impacts and experiences of high-skill immigrants by examining the extent to which high-skill immigrants have an impact on the earnings of high-skill U.S. natives across occupations. Drawing on pooled, cross-sectional data from the 1995-2002 Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplements (ASES) (formerly the Annual Demographic Survey Supplement) and using both OLS and IV approaches, the findings suggest a positive impact of high-skill immigrants on native earnings with the largest positive impact coming from foreign-born non-U.S. citizens. A 10-percent increase in the number of high-skill immigrants results in a 2.2 percent increase in the earnings of U.S. natives and a 10-percent increase in the number of foreign-born, non-U.S. citizens results in a 7.6 percent increase in native earnings.
- Incorporating Service Learning
into
Economics Courses
Abstract. Economists have long regarded the “talk and chalk” method to be the most efficient way to teach economics to undergraduate students. However, research on active-learning pedagogies suggests that most students comprehend and retain economic concepts better when they encounter them or use them actively, as in classroom debates, role-playing scenarios, experiments, and data-based problem solving exercises. A promising but seldom used active-learning technique for the economics classroom is service-learning. Service-learning courses provide students the opportunity to apply and relate economic concepts and theories to real-world experiences within the community and to reflect on the relationship between theory and practice. One form of service learning is student-based instruction, which involves college students teaching economics in the neighboring community, such as to high school or middle school students or community residents. This paper provides a detailed application of the student-based instruction form of service-learning to an Economics of Race and Gender course taught at Occidental College in spring 2006. The student-based instruction project required Occidental students to team-teach a topic covered in the course to students at a local high school. Upon completion of the project, students completed a survey about their learning experiences. The results indicated that service-learning enhanced learning and created a more enriching course experience.
- Formal Citizenship or Cultural
Citizenship?:
The Case of Mexican Immigrants in Los Angeles
County (with Dolores Trevizo)
Abstract. Using mixed methods, we explore the meaning and economic impact of legal status among Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles County. On the basis of a qualitative analysis of the recent nativist backlash against Mexicans immigrants, we argue that cultural citizenship does not have the power to constitute real membership into the community. Because norms and attitudes vary with time, place, and social actor, we argue that culture is too fluid and contradictory to constitute the kind of real membership implied in the concept “cultural citizenship”. Further, we show that non-naturalized immigrants living in poverty make below the legal minimum wage despite L. A. County’s historic inclusivity of Mexicans. With U.S. Census data we demonstrate that the lack of citizenship status carries an earnings penalty for immigrants, even when holding constant human capital and other observable characteristics. Those who naturalized, in contrast, earned a wage above their true market value, all else being equal. It follows that formal citizenship has the power to protect immigrants in their everyday lives in more consistent a way than cultural citizenship.
- Labor Market
Outcomes of Mexican Women in Mexico and the United States
(with Fernando Lozano and Benjamin Widner)
Last modified: 12 January, 2007