TY  - JOUR
AU  - Gandal,Neil
AU  - Hanson,Gordon H.
AU  - Slaughter,Matthew J.
TI  - Technology, Trade, and Adjustment to Immigration in Israel
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7962
PY  - 2000
Y2  - October 2000
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7962
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7962.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Gordon H. Hanson
IR/PS 0519
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA  92093-0519
Tel: 858/822-5087
Fax: 858/534-3939
E-Mail: gohanson@ucsd.edu

Matthew J. Slaughter
Tuck School of Business
Dartmouth College
100 Tuck Hall
Hanover, NH 03755
Tel: 603/646-2939
Fax: 603/646-0995
E-Mail: matthew.j.slaughter@dartmouth.edu
AB  - In the early 1990s Israel experienced a large and concentrated surge of immigration from the former Soviet Union. Most Russian immigrants had high education levels relative to the average Israeli.  Despite the size and skill mix of the immigration shock, existing research has found little evidence that it put downward pressure on Israeli wages.  In this paper we examine two open-economy mechanisms through which Israel may have absorbed changes in labor supplies related to the Russian immigration inflow:  the adoption of global changes in production technology, and national changes in the mix of traded goods produced.  Our main finding is that global changes in production techniques, which appear consistent with skill-biased technical change, were sufficient to more than offset Israel's change in relative factor supplies due to the Russian influx and other events.  We also find that changes in output mix (in either traded or nontraded industries) did not help Israel absorb changes in relative factor supplies.
ER  -