Working Paper: NBER ID: w21307
Authors: Casey Warman; Christopher Worswick
Abstract: The earnings and occupational task requirements of immigrants to Canada are analyzed. The growing education levels of immigrants in the 1990s have not led to a large improvement in earnings as one might expect if growing computerization and the resulting technological change was leading to a rising return to non-routine cognitive skills and a greater wage return to university education. Controlling for education, we find a pronounced cross-arrival cohort decline in earnings that coincided with cross-cohort declines in cognitive occupational task requirements and cross-cohort increases in manual occupational task requirements. The immigrant earnings outcomes had only a small effect on overall Canadian earnings inequality.
Keywords: Technological Change; Immigration; Earnings Inequality; Occupational Tasks
JEL Codes: J15; J24; J31; J61; J71
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Technological changes (O33) | immigrant earnings outcomes (K37) |
| Growing education levels of immigrants (I25) | immigrant earnings (J69) |
| Decline in cognitive task requirements (J29) | immigrant earnings outcomes (K37) |
| Increase in manual task requirements (J29) | immigrant earnings outcomes (K37) |
| Integration of highly educated immigrants (J61) | economic outcomes (F61) |
| Changes in source country compositions (F29) | economic outcomes (F61) |
| Decline in returns to foreign experience (F29) | economic outcomes for non-English speaking, non-European immigrants (K37) |
| Increased emphasis on university education in immigration policy (I23) | immigrant earnings performance (J68) |
| Changing source country distribution (D39) | language fluency (G53) |
| language fluency (G53) | occupational outcomes (J28) |
| occupational outcomes (J28) | income inequality within immigrant population (J69) |