Recovering the counterfactual wage distribution with selective return migration

Biavaschi, C. (2016) Recovering the counterfactual wage distribution with selective return migration. Labour Economics, 38 (1). pp. 59-80. ISSN 0927-5371 doi: 10.1016/j.labeco.2015.12.001

Abstract/Summary

This paper recovers the distribution of wages for Mexican-born workers living in the U.S. if no return migration of Mexican-born workers occurred. Because migrants self-select in the decision to return, the overarching problem addressed by this study is the use of an estimator that also accounts for selection on unobservables. I find that Mexican returnees are middle- to high-wage earners at all levels of educational attainment. Taking into account self-selection in return migration, wages would be approximately 7.7% higher at the median and 4.5% higher at the mean. Owing to positive self-selection, the immigrant-native wage gap would, therefore, partially close if there was no return migration.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/48695
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.labeco.2015.12.001
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Politics, Economics and International Relations > Economics
Publisher	Elsevier
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