2008 - 2009 University of Michigan Poverty Research Grants
Funded research
Dean Yang, University of Michigan
The Impact of International Migration: A Novel Approach to Identification
Description
This project will seek to identify the effect of international migration on US labor markets, using an instrumental variables (IV) approach involving plausibly exogenous regional variation in Mexico. Due to the historically durable regional channels of migration between sending regions in Mexico and receiving regions in the US, regional variation in economic and environmental shocks in Mexico will lead to variation in the Mexican migrant presence across the US labor markets in ways that are unrelated to conditions in those destination labor markets. By identifying both the historically persistent regional migration channels and the economic and environmental shocks (such as natural disasters) that exogenously drive migration, we will contribute to the literature that examines the effects of immigration on the US economic outcomes such as native wages, employment, and poverty rates.
