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The present thesis is a study of the immigration phenomenon and its repercussions in both the economic wellbeing of individuals---who migrate (or not)---and the regions that receive or lose population. More specifically, the first chapter, using the SESTAT database analyzes the impact of interstate migration of U.S. citizens---from birth state to employment stat---on their career outcomes. This essay contributes to the economic literature by specifically studying the case of U.S.A and by empirically correcting possible selection bias that rises from the duality between migration propensity and human capital endowment. The results indicate that repeat migration is associated with higher average salaries, while late migration with salary penalty.
In the first chapter of this thesis, the 1995 TIMSS eighth-grade mathematics score is used to proxy for home country education quality for U.S. immigrants. On average, a one standard deviation increase in TIMSS magnifies the marginal returns to post-migrational education by 0.83 percentage points. This pre-migrational education quality effect remains positive and significant for individuals at the 25th percentile of the conditional wage distribution. In addition, diminishing returns to post-migrational years of schooling is observed at all wage quantiles, but evidence is mixed in regards to pre-migrational years of education. Using the 2000 Census, the second paper finds that, compared to another immigrant holding a job that requires less human-interaction, an immigrant worker who possesses knowledge in speaking a non-English language and who works in a human-interaction-intensive occupation would enjoy an average wage benefit of 4.47%. For an immigrant, other immigrants from a different home country are perceived as complements, while those from the same country of origin would be substitutes. Moreover, a one standard deviation increase in bilateral trade volume between the United States and the immigrant's country of origin is predicted to enhance the immigrant's returns to working in the Wholesale Trade industry by 3.36% on average, a pattern that is very different for immigrants whose country of origin uses English as an official language. A positive relationship between parental involvement in reading-related activities before the student began schooling and the student's 2001 PIRLS test score is found in the third chapter. On average, having a parent who played alphabet toys, played word games, and read signs and labels out loud during the student's preschool years is predicted to carry an effect size of 0.2, holding other attributes constant. However, the effect of watching reading programs on television on this test score seems negative. Under a quantile regression framework, the effect of these parental inputs continues to be observed for students belonging to the 25th quantile of the conditional score distribution. Lastly, these academic variables are predicted to not affect an immigrant student's PIRLS score, although small sample size may be an issue.
This PhD dissertation presents three empirical studies on the economics of international migration. Chapter 1 examines how the migration of a household member to the United States affects the welfare of the other members left behind in rural areas of Mexico. Using a panel household survey, I show that non-migrants are better-off in terms of consumption and leisure time because (i) remittances sent by migrant exceed his/her initial contribution to the househok income and because (ii) the out- migration of a farmer raises the productivity of agricultural labor for those staying behind in the farm. Chapter 2 addresses the methodological issues empirical economists confront when they seek to identify the causal impact of migration on members left behind at origin. I propose a new method that takes into account the intra- household selection of migrants, i.e. the decision of which family members migrate and which stay behind, a problem that has remained largely ignored in the literature. Chapter 3 examines the effect of immigrant inflows in Europe on the evolution of natives' attitudes towards redistribution and immigration policy over the last decade. I find that attitudes are not only shaped by non-economic preferences, e.g. racial prejudice or differential altruism, but that they are also importantly determined by concerns on how immigration may affect the labor market, i.e. wages, and the Welfare State's finances, i.e. net social benefits.