Technological Change, Occupational Tasks and Declining Immigrant Outcomes: Implications for Earnings and Income Inequality in Canada

53 Pages Posted: 29 Jun 2015 Last revised: 22 Mar 2023

See all articles by Casey Warman

Casey Warman

Dalhousie University

Christopher Worswick

Carleton University - Department of Economics

Date Written: June 2015

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.

Suggested Citation

Warman, Casey and Worswick, Christopher, Technological Change, Occupational Tasks and Declining Immigrant Outcomes: Implications for Earnings and Income Inequality in Canada (June 2015). NBER Working Paper No. w21307, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2624434

Casey Warman (Contact Author)

Dalhousie University ( email )

Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3J5
Canada

Christopher Worswick

Carleton University - Department of Economics ( email )

1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6
Canada
61-3-520-2600 (3776) (Phone)

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