Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51982 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5508
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Immigrant workers and their labor force participation in host countries have received critical attention in all concerned disciplines, principally owing to its strong implications for well-being of natives. The ageing population in many rich countries and several related and unrelated issues including global integration, pension provisions or security threats keeps immigration under continuous impact evaluation. However, of the several studies that dealt with patterns and consequences aspects of labor migration, only a handful discusses asymmetric information across transnational labor markets despite agreement that a standardized screening mechanism is unavailable. At the same time, several empirical studies show that immigrants are proportionally overrepresented in self-employment, vis-à-vis natives of equivalent skill levels. We try to explain this phenomenon based on asymmetric information in the host country labor market. We focus on the design of a contract menu by the employers, which when offered to a mixed cohort of immigrants facilitates self-selection in favor of paid employment or the outside option of self-employment/entrepreneurship. We also discuss countervailing incentives among the mixed cohort.
Subjects: 
immigrants
asymmetric information
labor contracts
self-employment
incentive compatibility
JEL: 
D82
J23
J24
J41
J61
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
197.38 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.