Embedded Files
The Quarterly Journal of Economics, CXVI(4), November 2001, pp.1373-1408.
Abstract
Immigration increased Israel's population by 12 percent between 1990 and 1994, after emigration restrictions were lifted in an unstable Soviet Union. Following the influx, occupations that employed more immigrants had substantially lower native wage growth and slightly lower native employment growth than others. However, because the immigrants' postmigration occupational distribution was influenced by relative labor market conditions across occupations in Israel, Ordinary Least Squares estimates of the immigrants' impact on those conditions are biased. Instrumental Variables estimation, exploiting information on the immigrants' former occupations abroad, suggests no adverse impact of immigration on native outcomes.
Journal of Labor Economics, 18(2), April 2000, pp.221-251.
Abstract
The national origin of an individual's human capital is a crucial determinant of its value. Education and labor market experience acquired abroad are significantly less valued than human capital obtained domestically. This difference can fully explain the earnings disadvantage of immigrants relative to comparable natives in Israel. Variation in the return to foreign schooling across origin countries may reflect differences in its quality and compatibility with the host labor market. The return to foreign experience is generally insignificant. Acquiring additional education following immigration appears to confer a compound benefit by raising the return to education acquired abroad.
in The Handbook of International Migration: The American Experience, Charles Hirschman, Philip Kasinitz, and Josh DeWind, editors. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1999, pp.343-359. (joint with Jennifer Hunt)
Abstract
The public debate immigration policy in the United States has become quite heated in recent years. The passage of Proposition 187 in California in 1994, making illegal aliens ineligible for public health and education services, and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which curtailed immigrants' eligibility for public assistance, may herald . the beginning of a new period of tighter restrictions on immigration and immigrant rights in the United States.
Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9(2), Spring 1995, pp.23-44. (joint with Jennifer Hunt)
in Movement of Global Talent: The Impact of High Skill Labor Flows from India and China, Udai Tambar, editor. Princeton: Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, 2007, pp. p35-53.
National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 15406, October 2009. (joint with George Borjas)
Abstract
This paper studies long-term trends in the labor market performance of immigrants in the United States, using the 1960-2000 PUMS and 1994-2009 CPS. While there was a continuous decline in the earnings of new immigrants 1960-1990, the trend reversed in the 1990s, with newcomers doing as well in 2000, relative to natives, as they had 20 years earlier. This improvement in immigrant performance is not explained by changes in origin-country composition, educational attainment or state of residence. Changes in labor market conditions, including changes in the wage structure which could differentially impact recent arrivals, can account for only a small portion of it. The upturn appears to have been caused in part by a shift in immigration policy toward high-skill workers matched with jobs, an increase in the earnings of immigrants from Mexico, and a decline in the earnings of native high school dropouts. However, most of the increase remains a puzzle. Results from the CPS suggest that, while average entry wages fell again after 2000, correcting for simple changes in the composition of new immigrants, the unexplained rise in entry wages has persisted.
with David Jaeger in World Scientific Handbook of Global Migration, edited by R. Sauer, volume 1, chapter 3, pp. 45-70 (joint with D. Jaeger). Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2024.
Abstract
While it is well known that some areas of the United States receive more immigrants than others, less is understood about the extent to which the character of immigration varies as well. There is much broader geographic variation in the skill and demographic composition of immigrants than natives, with important implications for their economic effects. This paper provides a new perspective by focusing on heterogeneity in outcomes such as the share of population growth due to immigration, the presence of immigrant children in schools, and the effect of immigration on the age, sex, language, and educational composition of the local population and workforce.
in World Scientific Handbook of Global Migration, edited by R. Sauer, volume 1, chapter 5, pp. 99-121 (joint with R. Sauer). Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2024.
Abstract
Starting in the late 1980s, the Israeli market for unskilled labor began a liberalization process that resulted in a large influx of foreign guest workers from overseas. The vast majority of overseas foreign workers directly compete with Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip for jobs in Israel. Using micro level panel data from the Territories Labor Force Survey and monthly time-series data on the number of foreign guest workers in Israel, this paper measures the effects of the presence of foreign guest workers on Palestinian employment and earnings. OLS and IV estimates indicate that the presence of foreign guest workers substantially reduces Palestinian employment levels in Israel. Palestinians from Gaza are displaced to a greater extent than are Palestinians from the West Bank. OLS and IV estimates indicate a large and significant reduction in mean monthly and mean daily earnings among Palestinians from Gaza, but not among Palestinians from the West Bank.
Brown University Working Paper.
Abstract
This paper explores a new margin of adjustment to immigration, namely university students' choice of field of study. The field choices of university students in Israel - particularly those of freshmen and prospective freshmen - are found to have changed significantly, following the immigration to Israel of a large number of experienced Russian engineers and medical professionals in the 1990s. The share of Israeli undergraduates majoring in those two fields fell substantially, while the share majoring in law, a field with almost no Russians, rose. Students appear to respond to perceived changes in relative labor market conditions across fields. However, the magnitude of the response is insufficient to explain the finding that relative wages across occupations in Israel did not change following the mass migration of Russians to Israel.
Ph.D. Dissertation, MIT.
Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration. Hearing on the U.S. Economy, U.S. Workers, and Immigration Reform, May 3, 2007
Click on the “video webcast” icon in the middle of the page. Testimony begins at 1 hour 16 minutes into the video, with another clip at 2 hours 13 minutes
The Washington Post, April 21, 2007.
The New York Times Magazine, July 9, 2007
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