TY  - JOUR
AU  - D'Amuri,Francesco
AU  - Ottaviano,Gianmarco I.P.
AU  - Peri,Giovanni
TI  - The Labor Market Impact of Immigration in Western Germany in the 1990's
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13851
PY  - 2008
Y2  - March 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13851
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13851.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Francesco D'Amuri
Bank of Italy,
Via Nazionale 91,
00184, Rome
ITALY
and  ISER, University of Essex
E-Mail: francesco.damuri@bancaditalia.it

Gianmarco Ottaviano
University of Bologna
Dip Scienze Economiche
Strada Maggiore 45, 40125 Bologna
ITALY
E-Mail: ottavian@economia.unibo.it

Giovanni Peri
Department of Economics
University of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
Tel: 530/752-3033
E-Mail: gperi@ucdavis.edu
AB  - We adopt a general equilibrium approach in order to measure the effects of recent immigration on the Western German labor market, looking at both wage and employment effects. Using the Regional File of the IAB Employment Subsample for the period 1987-2001, we find that the substantial immigration of the 1990's had no adverse effects on native wages and employment levels. It had instead adverse employment and wage effects on previous waves of immigrants. This stems from the fact that, after controlling for education and experience levels, native and migrant workers appear to be imperfect substitutes whereas new and old immigrants exhibit perfect substitutability. Our analysis suggests that if the German labor market were as 'flexible' as the UK labor market, it would be more efficient in dealing with the effects of immigration.


ER  -