Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/109129 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IFN Working Paper No. 1036
Publisher: 
Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm
Abstract: 
In most OECD-countries, immigrants have lower employment and higher unemployment than natives. This paper compares nine potential explanations of these gaps. Results are obtained for 21-28 countries using bivariate correlations, OLS-regressions and Bayesian model averaging over all 512 theoretically possible model specifications. Two robust patterns are found. The unemployment gap is bigger in countries where collective bargaining agreements cover a larger share of the labor market. The employment gap is bigger in countries with more generous social safety nets. Five variables have explanatory value in some specifications: Xenophobia, employment protection laws, social expenditure, asylum applications, and the share of immigrants in the population. The education of immigrants and migrant integration policies have no explanatory value. A trade-off seems to exist such that countries with smaller labor market gaps have higher income inequality.
Subjects: 
Labor market segregation
Immigration
Insider-outside hypothesis
JEL: 
E24
J51
J60
J71
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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