Senior lecturer at University of Exeter Business School to talk about ‘Spatial Misallocation of Native Labour and Immigration’
9 JANUARY, 2023: Rish Singhania, from the University of Exeter Business School, will host a research seminar titled ‘Spatial Misallocation of Native Labour and Immigration’ on 16 January 2023. The seminar will begin at 4.00 pm at P21.
His talk will document how immigrants played an outsized role in one of the biggest reallocations of workers in the US since World War II -- the shift in population from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt. Motivated by this observation, the paper asks how much immigrant workers contribute to US’ economic growth through the spatial reallocation channel. The paper will first provide empirical evidence using US Census data that, in terms of labour-market earnings, immigrants sort themselves better across locations than natives. It will then use a Roy model of occupational choice to measure frictions to labour reallocation separately for natives and immigrant workers.
The standard deviation of the wedge between earnings and utility, the model-based measure of frictions, is more than three times larger for natives than for immigrant workers. The paper will run equilibrium counter-factuals in which it will evaluate the effect of varying the share of immigrant workers on aggregate US productivity. It finds that in 2018, aggregate labour productivity in the US was hump-shaped in the share of immigrant workers. The hump shape reflects the net effect of two underlying forces. First, there is a misallocation effect -- increasing the share of immigrant workers increases labour productivity by ameliorating the misallocation of native labour. The second effect reflects a change in endowment -- increasing the share of immigrant workers lowers labour productivity because these workers are, on average, less productive than natives.
Singhania is a Senior Lecturer (Advanced Assistant Professor) in Economics at the University of Exeter Business School and his research interests lie in the areas of macroeconomics, firm dynamics and financial economics. For details, visit: https://sites.google.com/site/singhaniah/
Senior lecturer at University of Exeter Business School to talk about ‘Spatial Misallocation of Native Labour and Immigration’
9 JANUARY, 2023: Rish Singhania, from the University of Exeter Business School, will host a research seminar titled ‘Spatial Misallocation of Native Labour and Immigration’ on 16 January 2023. The seminar will begin at 4.00 pm at P21.
His talk will document how immigrants played an outsized role in one of the biggest reallocations of workers in the US since World War II -- the shift in population from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt. Motivated by this observation, the paper asks how much immigrant workers contribute to US’ economic growth through the spatial reallocation channel. The paper will first provide empirical evidence using US Census data that, in terms of labour-market earnings, immigrants sort themselves better across locations than natives. It will then use a Roy model of occupational choice to measure frictions to labour reallocation separately for natives and immigrant workers.
The standard deviation of the wedge between earnings and utility, the model-based measure of frictions, is more than three times larger for natives than for immigrant workers. The paper will run equilibrium counter-factuals in which it will evaluate the effect of varying the share of immigrant workers on aggregate US productivity. It finds that in 2018, aggregate labour productivity in the US was hump-shaped in the share of immigrant workers. The hump shape reflects the net effect of two underlying forces. First, there is a misallocation effect -- increasing the share of immigrant workers increases labour productivity by ameliorating the misallocation of native labour. The second effect reflects a change in endowment -- increasing the share of immigrant workers lowers labour productivity because these workers are, on average, less productive than natives.
Singhania is a Senior Lecturer (Advanced Assistant Professor) in Economics at the University of Exeter Business School and his research interests lie in the areas of macroeconomics, firm dynamics and financial economics. For details, visit: https://sites.google.com/site/singhaniah/