Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/247714 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 998
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
Abstract: 
An important goal of immigration policy is to facilitate the entry of foreignborn workers whose skills are in short supply in national labor markets. In recent decades, information and communication technology [ICT] has fueled the demand for highly educated workers at the expense of lower educated groups. Exploiting the fact that different regions in Switzerland have been differentially exposed to ICT due to their pre-ICT industrial composition, we present evidence suggesting that more exposed regions experienced stronger ICT adoption, accompanied by considerably stronger growth in relative employment and wage-premia for college-educated workers. Following this change in the landscape of relative economic opportunities, we find robust evidence that these regions experienced a much stronger in ux of highly educated immigrants in absolute terms as well as relative to lower educated groups. Our results suggest that immigrants' location decisions respond strongly to these long-run, technology-driven changes in their economic opportunities.
Subjects: 
immigrant sorting
international migration
skill-biased technical change
information and communication technology
skill supply
JEL: 
F22
J61
J24
J31
J23
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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