Cross-occupational effects of immigration on native wages in the UK

Alfano, M., Mckenzie, R. and Roy, G. (2023) Cross-occupational effects of immigration on native wages in the UK. Applied Economics Letters, (doi: 10.1080/13504851.2023.2204213) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

This article estimates the effect of immigration into an occupation on the wages of natives working in other, better-paid occupations. Using Annual Population Survey data from the UK we rank occupations by the Standard Occupation Classification provided by the ONS and find that increases in the migrant/native ratio raise average wages of natives working in the next higher ranked occupation by around 0.332%. Our findings have important implications for policy and public discourse. They suggest that debates over the economic impacts of migration often ignore the potential spill-over benefits that a migrant can bring to the outcomes for native workers elsewhere in the wage distribution, particularly in lower wage occupations.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Roy, Professor Graeme
• Authors: Alfano, M., Mckenzie, R., and Roy, G.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences; College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Economics
• Journal Name: Applied Economics Letters
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1350-4851
• ISSN (Online): 1466-4291
• Published Online: 20 April 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Applied Economics Letters 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License