Research Seminar: The Cushioning Effect of Immigrant Mobility

Date: 

Monday, December 20, 2021, 10:15am to 11:30am

Location: 

Zoom (registration information below)

Speaker: Cem Özgüzel, Economist, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Abstract: During the Great Recession, immigrants reacted to the drop in labour demand in Spain through internal migration or leaving the country. Consequently, provinces lost 13.5% of their immigrants or -3% of the total labour supply, on average. Using municipal registers and longitudinal administrative data, I find that immigrant outflows slowed the decline in employment and wage of natives. I use a modified shift-share instrument based on past settlements to claim causality. Employment effects were driven by increased entries to employment, while wage effects were limited to natives that were already employed. These effects also persisted in the medium-term.

Speaker bio: Cem is an Economist at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and a Research Fellow at the Institut Convergences Migrations. He is an applied economist with a PhD in economics from the Paris School of Economics, and has research interests in international migration, labor markets and regional economics. Before joining the OECD, he worked as a Teaching and Research Fellow at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and as a Lecturer at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po). He was also a visiting scholar at Center for International Development at Harvard University, and the German Institute for Employment Research (IAB).

Please register in advance. Contact Chuck McKenney with any questions.