LABOR-MARKET EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION IN THE UNITED-STATES AND EUROPE -SUBSTITUTION VS COMPLEMENTARITY

This paper examines the impact of immigrants on the income of various groups of resident workers in the United States and Europe. Our approa ch features the use of a production technology incorporating education , experience, and unskilled labor as inputs. This contrasts with the a ssumption used in earlier studies that native-born and immigrant labor are distinct inputs into production. We find that in both United Stat es and European production, education, unskilled labor and experience are complementary inputs. Based on these results, simulations of the i mpact of immigration on residents are carried out. The absolute magnit ude of these effects is found to be very small.