Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/263407 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15191
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper studies how the introduction of a novel residence permit for working purposes – the so-called Blue Card introduced in August 2012 – has affected entry-level wages of non-EU migrants in Germany. The Blue Card was targeted at non-EU university graduates with degrees received or recognized in Germany. It provided immediate residence to students with a working contract that pays above clearly-announced and regularly-updated wage thresholds. We leverage a difference-in-difference approach and unique data on national and international graduates in Germany between 2011-2014. We find that the introduction of the Blue Card increases entry-level wages of non-EU graduates relative to the control group by approximately 2 percent of the pre-treatment entry-level wages. We provide suggestive evidence that these results are not driven by more or better-quality non-EU graduates staying in Germany, but rather because the Blue Card wage threshold acts as a reference point.
Subjects: 
work permit
foreign students
highly-educated migrants
wages
JEL: 
J60
J61
J63
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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