THE IMPACT OF IRCA ON THE JOB OPPORTUNITIES AND EARNINGS OF MEXICAN-AMERICAN AND HISPANIC-AMERICAN WORKERS

This article studies the earnings gap between Mexican, Hispanic and no n-Hispanic white male workers resulting from changes in both the wage structure and immigration laws that occurred during the 1980s. Our res ults suggest that Mexican and Hispanic workers were adversely affected by these two changes. Using data from the 1980 and 1990 One Percent P ublic Use Microdata Samples, we show that these ''at-risk'' workers mi nimized the negative impact of the increases in the returns to skill b y gaining in the non-Hispanic white residual wage distribution. We con clude that at-risk workers increased their work effort to lessen the e ffects of Act-induced employment losses. Using 1983-1992 data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and EEOC data for this period, we provide support for this contention.