Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/62524 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6713
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We investigate the labor market effects of immigration in Denmark, Germany and the UK, three countries which are characterized by considerable differences in labor market institutions and welfare states. Institutions such as collective bargaining, minimum wages, employment protection and unemployment benefits affect the way in which wages respond to labor supply shocks, and, hence, the labor market effects of immigration. We employ a wage-setting approach which assumes that wages decline with the unemployment rate, albeit imperfectly. We find that wage flexibility is substantially higher in the UK compared to Germany and, in particular, Denmark. As a consequence, immigration has a much larger effect on the unemployment rate in Germany and Denmark, while the wage effects are larger in the UK. Moreover, the elasticity of substitution between natives and foreign workers is high in the UK and particularly low in Germany. Thus, the preexisting foreign labor force suffers more from further immigration in Germany than in the UK.
Subjects: 
immigration
unemployment
wages
labor markets
panel data
comparative studies
JEL: 
F22
J31
J61
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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