Wharton Public Policy Initiative Issue Briefs
Publication Date
5-2016
Files
Download Full Text (396 KB)
Volume
4
Number
4
Document Type
Brief
Summary
While the public debate on immigration reform has been divisive, the tools of economics provide clear lessons for a way forward. The single most important lesson that economics holds for immigration policymakers is that immigration restrictions are costly, because they interfere with the free movement of labor. Most economists believe that the gains to global GDP from greater labor mobility are very large. Beyond the estimated gains to the world economy, the consensus among economists is that, as a whole, U.S. natives gain from immigration in the labor market. While immigration may have an adverse effect on some native wages and employment—particularly for the least skilled workers—the empirical evidence indicates these effects, if existent, are small.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
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Keywords
immigration, labor, mobility, women, wages, distribution of income, global, GDP
Recommended Citation
Chang, Howard F., "Walls or Welcome Mats? Immigration and the Labor Market" (2016). Wharton Public Policy Initiative Issue Briefs. 5.
https://repository.upenn.edu/pennwhartonppi/5