Hunt, Priscillia (2008) Are immigrants so stuck to the floor that the ceiling is irrelevant? Working Paper. University of Warwick, Department of Economics, Coventry.

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Abstract

In this paper, the immigrant-native wage differential is explained through quantile regression estimations. Using repeated cross-sections of the British Labour Force Survey from 1993-2005, we analyse the returns to covariates across the conditional earnings distribution. We estimate a pooled model with an immigrant dummy and separate models for immigrants and natives of the UK. Our results show that the positive wage gap in favour of immigrants is attributed to those at higher quantiles. Returns to education and experience vary wider for natives than for immigrants. We decompose the wage gap in the Blinder-Oaxaca framework and apply quantile regression techniques to see if immigrants simply have more viable labour market characteristics than natives or if there is a preference for immigrant workers (reverse discrimination). Our findings suggest immigrants should actually be earning more and there is sufficient evidence of discrimination. This finding is, however, not symmetric across the conditional wage distribution and immigrants atthe bottom face more discrimination than those at the top.

Item Type:	Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Immigrants -- Economic conditions, Wage differentials, Regression analysis
Series Name:	Warwick economic research papers
Publisher:	University of Warwick, Department of Economics
Place of Publication:	Coventry
Date:	February 2008
Number:	No.838
Number of Pages:	37
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Funder:	Fifth Framework Programme (European Commission) (FP5)
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/1377

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