Ireland's recession and the immigrant/native earnings gap
Barrett, Alan ; Bergin, Adele ; Kelly, Elish ; McGuinness, Seamus
Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn
IZA - Bonn
2014
29 p.
economic recession ; migrant worker ; wage differential
Discussion Paper
8459
Wages and wage payment systems
English
Bibliogr.
"The economic collapse was more severe in Ireland relative to elsewhere. Many questions have arisen concerning the impacts of the collapse, including the impacts on immigrants and their subsequent reactions. Previous research shows that immigrant employment contracted sharply over the recession, thereby suggesting reduced demand for immigrant labour. In this paper, we ask whether immigrants' earnings also fell, relative to natives. Although the raw data shows a widening of the immigrant/native pay gap, when we control for relevant characteristics the adjusted wage gap narrows. A decomposition analysis shows that most of the change in the raw wage gap is generated by the changing composition of the immigrants who were employed."
Digital
The ETUI is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the ETUI.