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VAM-Velferd, arbeid og migrasjon

The impact of immigration on employment and wages of Norwegian workers

Awarded: NOK 1.9 mill.

Project Number:

173572

Application Type:

Project Period:

2006 - 2010

Funding received from:

Location:

Subject Fields:

The problem to be analyzed in this project is the impact of immigration on wage growth, employment and unemployment in Norway. The project will address the effects of past immigration flows during the last two decades, but will pay special attention to th e current (and near-future) labour migration flows from the new EU countries. Indeed, the EU enlargement and the resulting increase in labour migration to Norway, constitutes a rare natural experiment in which social scientists can study the labour market consequences of immigration. Immigration represents a positive shift in the level of labour supply as well as a change the composition of the workforce. We will study the average effects of these changes, and how effects differ across groups of workers a ccording to skill, educational attainment and work experience. The approach we apply is based on economics. That is, hypotheses are deduced from economic theory of the labour market, and in the empirical analyses we employ quantitative, statistical proced ures. The main data set we plan to use is established by merging a series of public administrative registers, containing information about individuals and their employers. From these merged registers, which are managed by Statistics Norway, it is possibl e to observe the individual labour market histories of all individuals with a legal residence permit in Norway. That is, we may follow individuals over time through periods inside and outside the labour market and through periods of unemployment and empl oyment. The data contain information on wage developments, geographical residence and employers. The project addresses four broad and interrelated research questions regarding the effect of immigration on different aspects of native labour market outcome s and behaviour: 1. Do immigrants lower the wage and/or increase the unemployment risk of (seemingly competing) similar native workers? 2. To what extent does immigration increase wages and reduce

Funding scheme:

VAM-Velferd, arbeid og migrasjon