Open access
Autor(in)
Alle anzeigen
Datum
2023-01Typ
- Working Paper
ETH Bibliographie
yes
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Abstract
Refugees, and immigrants more generally, often do not have access to all jobs in the labor market. We argue that restrictions on employment opportunities help explain why immigrants have lower employment and wages than native citizens. To test this hypothesis, we leverage refugees’ exogenous geographic assignment in Switzerland, within-canton variation in labor market restrictions, and linked register data 1999–2016. We document large negative employment and earnings effects of banning refugees from working in the first months after arrival, from working in certain sectors and regions, and from prioritizing residents over refugees. Consistent with an effect of outside options on wages, removing 10% of jobs reduces refugees’ hourly wages by 2.8% and increases the wage gap to similar host-country citizens in similar jobs by 2.2%. Furthermore, we show that restrictions reduce
refugees’ earnings even after they cease applying. Restrictions do not spur refugee emigration nor improve earnings of non-refugee immigrants. Mehr anzeigen
Persistenter Link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000595935Publikationsstatus
publishedZeitschrift / Serie
KOF Working PapersBand
Verlag
KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH ZurichThema
Labor market integration; migration; labor market policies; labor market institutions; monopsony; refugees; employment; Wages; outside options; employment opportunitiesOrganisationseinheit
02525 - KOF Konjunkturforschungsstelle / KOF Swiss Economic Institute
06337 - KOF FB Arbeitsmarktökonomie / KOF FB Labour Market Economics
03716 - Sturm, Jan-Egbert / Sturm, Jan-Egbert
ETH Bibliographie
yes
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