ANALYSIS OF LABOR MARKETS

Order Description
Guidelines
Readings
• Read the sections 8.4-8.9 in the Borjas book.
• Read the policy memo by The Economic Policy Institute titled “Facts about
Immigration and the U.S. Economy.”
• Read (or skim through) the report prepared by the National Academic of Sci- ences ahout the impact of immigration on the employment and wages in the U.S. This report is relatively technical. You do not need to fully understand the graphs and equations.
• Do a search on the internet
Summarizing the Debate on Immigration and the U.S. Labor Market
After learning how to analyze the labor market impact of immigration, and reading different opinions on this issue, write a three (3) page policy summary on the debate. The policy summary should cover these elements: (These questions help you to think about this issue. Your policy summary should not be simply providing an- swers to these questions. You should organize your argument and evidence coher-
ently to support your policy recommendation.)
• What does labor economic theory predict about the impacts of immigration on wages and employment in the United States? Are these predictions unambigu- ous or do they depend on different scenarios?
• What are the empirical findings on these predictions?
• What are the experts debating about? List evidence that supports the argument
in each camp.
• What is your take on this issue? Do you think overall immigration benefits or hurts U.S. workers? Why?
Your policy Summary can, but does not have to, address some of the following ques- tions
• Do you agree that the United States currently has too many immigrants?
• Immigrant workers are not homogeneous. Do you agree that the United States
should treat high-skilled or low-skilled immigrants differently?
• Workers in the United States are not homogeneous either. Who do you think will gain from a more open immigration policy, who will lose?
• Will the short-run effects and long-run effects be different? How will firms respond to a more restrictive immigration policy?
• Read the Hamilton Project memo on “Rationalizing U.S. Immigration Policy”. What do you think is the right immigration policy in terms of its economic impacts?
Writing and Editing Tips
Please read Prof. C. L. Ballard’s tips on writing and style (posted on D2L).
You should edit your policy memo in Microsoft Word or similar text editing soft- wares. All submissions should be electronic. .docx format (from Microsoft Word) is preferable because it allows me to edit and comment on the document. You should
use font size 12 and double space.
There is no minimum page requirement. The whole policy memo, including fig-
ures, tables, and references, should be less than 3 pages.
Each student should write his/her policy memo individually.
Deadlines
The deadline is April 27th, before the end of business day (5PM). Please send your policy memo (preferably in .docx formats) to my email: [email protected]. On our final meeting on May 4th (after Exam 2), I will provide comments and feedback for individual policy memos.
You can, and are encouraged, to submit your policy memo before the deadline. If you can submit before March 23th, I will read and give comments and revision suggestions before April 6th. You can revise your policy memo according to the comments, then re-submit it before the April 27th deadline.