How Immigration Grease is Affected by Economic, Institutional and Policy Contexts: Evidence from EU Labor Markets

40 Pages Posted: 4 Sep 2015 Last revised: 16 Apr 2023

See all articles by Martin Guzi

Martin Guzi

Masaryk University - Department of Public Economics; Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI); IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Charles University in Prague - CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of Charles University and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Martin Kahanec

IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Central European University; Central European Labour Studies Institute

Lucia Mytna Kurekova

Slovak Governance Institute; Central European University

Abstract

Theoretical arguments and previous country-level evidence indicate that immigrants are more fluid than natives in responding to changing labor shortages across countries, skill-groups or industries. The diversity across EU member states enables us to test this hypothesis across various institutional, economic and policy contexts. Drawing on the EU LFS and EU SILC datasets we study the relationship between residual wage premia as a measure of labor shortages in different skill-industry-country cells and the shares of migrants and natives working in these cells.We find that immigrants' responsiveness to labor market shortages exceeds that of natives in the EU15, in particular in member states with higher unemployment rates, higher levels of (recent) immigration, and more open immigration and integration policies; but also those with barriers to citizenship acquisition or family reunification. Whereas higher welfare expenditures seem to exert a lock-in effect, a comparison across different types of welfare states indicates that institutional complementarities neutralize that effect.

Keywords: institutions, labor supply, skill matching, migration, labor shortage, welfare state, policy

JEL Classification: J15, J24, J61, J68

Suggested Citation

Guzi, Martin and Kahanec, Martin and Mytna Kurekova, Lucia, How Immigration Grease is Affected by Economic, Institutional and Policy Contexts: Evidence from EU Labor Markets. IZA Discussion Paper No. 9108, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2655056 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2655056

Martin Guzi (Contact Author)

Masaryk University - Department of Public Economics ( email )

Lipova 41a
KVE
Brno, 62400
Czech Republic

HOME PAGE: http://www.muni.cz/en/people/233611-martin-guzi/cv

Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI)

Zvolenská 29
Bratislava, 82109
Slovakia

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://legacy.iza.org/en/webcontent/personnel/photos/index_html?key=5347

Charles University in Prague - CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of Charles University and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences ( email )

Politickych veznu 7
Prague, 111 21
Czech Republic

Martin Kahanec

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Central European University ( email )

Nador utca 9
Budapest, H-1051
Hungary

Central European Labour Studies Institute ( email )

Zvolenská 29
Bratislava, 82109
Slovakia

HOME PAGE: http://www.celsi.sk

Lucia Mytna Kurekova

Slovak Governance Institute ( email )

Gajova 4
Bratislava, 81109
Slovakia

Central European University ( email )

Nador utca 9
Budapest, H-1051
Hungary

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