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Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
A Category Archive (254 entries)
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April 27, 2013
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
The Atlantic profiles Vipul Naik, Michael Clemens, Michael Huemer, and other champions of free migration. Highlights:What if there was a program that would cost nothing, improve the lives of millions of people from poorer nations, and double world GDP? At... MORE
April 24, 2013
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Art Carden
I'm speaking this morning to the New Horizons Program at UAB--a lifelong education program for senior citizens--on immigration. My outline and bibliography are here. I'll discuss jobs, wages, culture, crime--and the eugenic origins of immigration restrictions. I'm also going to... MORE
April 19, 2013
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
With permission from ReasonTV, this is Shikha Dalmia on five reasons that unskilled immigrants are good for America. If you go to this link, you can find a fairly faithful transcript.... MORE
April 15, 2013
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
Vipul Naik called my attention to an interesting comment on immigration and bubbles:Isn't the bubble idea in opposition to the unlimited immigration idea? Your bubble advice boils down to surrounding yourself as much as possible with like minded people. Immigration... MORE
April 12, 2013
I've held off commenting on Margaret Thatcher because I didn't know her legacy as well as many did. In 2011, Bruce Bartlett pointed out that she did not succeed in reducing government spending or government revenue as a percent... MORE
March 20, 2013
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
Over at Cato Unbound, philosopher Nicole Hassoun prompted me to sketch the main argument I plan to make in Part II of Poverty: Who To Blame. Namely: We should view people in the Third World as victims of First World... MORE
March 19, 2013
Microeconomics
Bryan Caplan
Adam Ozimek has an interesting objection to my claim (here and here) that empirical work on the disemployment effect of the minimum wage contradicts empirical work on the wage effect of low-skilled immigration:Bryan's immigration example is missing an important point.... MORE
March 16, 2013
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
Tyler Cowen's latest New York Times column, "A Profession with an Egalitarian Core," is one of the best short pieces he's written in the last year or so. HIs overall point is that economists have been on the forefront in... MORE
March 2, 2013
Cost-benefit Analysis
Bryan Caplan
Call it the nobility summit: The noble charity evaluator GiveWell brainstorms with the noble immigration researcher Michael Clemens. The highlight for me (Clemens speaking):CITA is a non-profit organization in Yuma, AZ founded by Janine Duron, which aims to match Mexican... MORE
March 1, 2013
Labor Market
David Henderson
Which is the binding constraint? My co-blogger Garett Jones posted this week on the supply of doctors, suggesting a new way of thinking about them. He used the idea of opportunity cost: if potential doctors face a high opportunity cost... MORE
February 23, 2013
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
"Low-Immigration, Pro-Immigrant." So reads the masthead of the Center for Immigration Studies. I'm still trying to make sense of it. If someone announced a "low-in-law visits, pro-in-law stance," we'd laugh. If you like your in-laws, you'll welcome frequent visits. If... MORE
February 18, 2013
Economics and Culture
Bryan Caplan
During today's debate #2, I circled back to debate #1: If you really want to help the world's victims of oppression and intolerance, open borders is a cheap, humane alternative to military intervention. How many Rwandan lives would have been... MORE
February 17, 2013
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
Today at Students for Liberty 2013 I did a double-header debate against the Center for Immigration Studies' Jan Ting. The format gave each of us a two minute (!) opening statement for each topic. Here's my opening statement for Topic... MORE
February 15, 2013
Economic Methods
Bryan Caplan
The IGM Forum reacts to:The average US citizen would be better off if a larger number of highly educated foreign workers were legally allowed to immigrate to the US each year.The result is very lop-sided agreement:The award for the strangest... MORE
Labor Market
Bryan Caplan
David's latest reply on illegal immigration is excellent, and I freely concede his two main points as I understand them. Namely:1. A narrow segment of illegal workers would lose in the short-run from legalization:I had in mind a specific group... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
In responding to my criticism of his post, Bryan quoted two sentences but left out the sentences that followed in the same paragraph. That omission matters. Bryan also subtly changed the subject. First, the omission. Bryan writes: David is right... MORE
Labor Market
Bryan Caplan
David makes a very strong case for the strange-to-me view that employers actually prefer illegal workers. He's especially compelling when he notes:[I]f you're an illegal worker earning less than the minimum, then when you become legal, your ability to credibly... MORE
February 14, 2013
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
Co-blogger Bryan Caplan finds "strange" the claim that "employers prefer to hire illegal immigrants because they don't have to pay them minimum wage or follow other labor market regulations." I don't find it strange at all. First, although I know... MORE
Labor Market
Bryan Caplan
One of the strangest claims I've heard is that employers prefer to hire illegal immigrants because they don't have to pay them minimum wage or follow other labor market regulations. I can imagine this happening under special circumstances (e.g. everyone... MORE
February 11, 2013
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
What personality types are most likely to support open borders? Since almost no one in the First World favors open borders, we shouldn't expect to find common personalities that typically support open borders. It's conceivable, though, that rare personalities typically... MORE
February 4, 2013
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
That is why a robust guest-worker program is needed: to accommodate future flows of migrants. After decades of unauthorized immigration motivated by economic gain, it is fantasy to expect it to stop after legalizing those unauthorized immigrants already here. Let... MORE
January 25, 2013
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
The focus in the [1996] welfare reform legislation on scaling back the safety net for immigrants was, in some part, a response to concerns that generous public benefits lead to in‐migration to the U.S. and interstate flows of immigrants responding... MORE
January 9, 2013
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Garett Jones
Over the holidays some of my relatives lamented the changes going on in America. One of the lamentations: the decline of dynamism, the rejection of the frontier spirit. Is there something to this? One piece of evidence: We just don't... MORE
January 3, 2013
Economic Methods
Bryan Caplan
My open borders autobiography is now a guest post at Open Borders. Since I strove to truthfully and unstrategically describe my intellectual evolution, even my harshest critics may enjoy it. Highlights:Until I was seventeen, my views on immigration were completely... MORE
December 31, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
The Tiebout model implies that local governments will be redistribution-free and waste-free. If you find these predictions absurd - and you should - local governments must violate one or more assumptions of the Tiebout model. What are the key violations?1.... MORE
December 15, 2012
Economics and Culture
Bryan Caplan
An especially clever argument by Nathan Smith:[G]lobalization has half-Americanized half the world already. 19th-century immigrants may have been racially more similar to America's white native majority, but they were less familiar with democracy, with the English language, with America via movies... MORE
December 12, 2012
Public Choice Theory
Bryan Caplan
Economists across the political spectrum embrace the realism of the Tiebout model. The model's intuition: At the level of local government, there are many consumers (i.e. residents and businesses), many suppliers (i.e. localities), and low switching costs - all the... MORE
December 4, 2012
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
Over at Open Borders, Nathan Smith shares his preliminary immigration policy empirics from the World Values Survey. Out of 48 countries surveyed, the people of Vietnam (?!) favor the fewest restrictions on immigration, and the people of Malaysia favor the... MORE
November 27, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Garett Jones
You've heard the news already that the Bank of England is importing a high-quality central banker from Canada. This continues the tradition begun in 1688 (or was it 1066? or AD 43?) of importing the best talent rather than pushing for... MORE
November 23, 2012
Cost-benefit Analysis
Bryan Caplan
Suppose you wanted to spend your charitable dollars to increase the total number of people who migrate from the Third World to the First World. What approach would give you the biggest bang for your buck? Are any specific countries,... MORE
November 16, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
Correction below. Did the United States begin in 1875? A little checking turned up the following information: 1. Ellis Island was only established as a federal immigration point--the first such--in 1890. 2. The first federal restrictions on immigration were passed... MORE
November 12, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
I'm pleased to see Steve Sailer engaging my 3 AM Dorm Room hypotheticals (here and here):"Biased in favor of" is hardly the same as "recognizes no moral obligations to non-citizens" and does not imply Poisoning Children. I also do not,... MORE
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
To trespass is to enter a piece of land without the owner's consent. What should we infer, then, when people argue that illegal immigrants are guilty of trespassing?At first glance, the trespassing shoe doesn't fit. The typical illegal immigrant:1. Occupies... MORE
November 8, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
An interesting vignette from Steve Sailer:By "citizenism," I mean that I believe Americans should be biased in favor of the welfare of our current fellow citizens over that of the six billion foreigners. Let me describe citizenism using a business... MORE
October 30, 2012
Cross-country Comparisons
Bryan Caplan
Starting in January, Cubans will no longer need exit visas to leave their workers' paradise. Just one problem: Are there any First World countries that will let them come?For that matter, what's the best Third World country that will let... MORE
October 23, 2012
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Earlier this month, Vipul Naik asked me to ask you about the persuasiveness of my case for open borders. Today Vipul posted an extended analysis of your responses. Very thoughtful, very careful, very fair. Read the whole thing.... MORE
October 11, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
Imagine you live in a democracy surrounded by a hostile majority. The median voter wants to deprive you of the rights to (a) accept a job offer from a willing employer, or (b) rent an apartment from a willing landlord. ... MORE
October 9, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
Immigration restrictions probably have bigger effects on the world's economy than all other regulations combined. As far as I can tell, virtually every moral theory - utilitarian, libertarian, egalitarian, Rawlsian, Kantian, Christian, and Marxist for starters - implies that these... MORE
Economics of Crime
David Henderson
"Bostonian," one of the commenters on my previous post on immigration quoted from an article by my Hoover colleague, Victor Davis Hanson. So I read the whole thing. There's a lot of meaty content, good and weak, in his article,... MORE
October 8, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
In response to my Freeman article, "Tear Down These Walls," Henry Woodruff wrote [permission granted from The Freeman to reprint his letter and my response]: I very much enjoyed reading David Henderson's article, "Tear Down These Walls," in the June... MORE
September 28, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Martin Gilens isn't known for his work on immigration. Yet strangely, his two best-known books - Why Americans Hate Welfare and Affluence and Influence - have major implications about the effect of immigration on American politics. Everyone worried about the... MORE
September 21, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
Vipul Naik of Open Borders has started a thought-provoking series of posts on libertarians and immigration:I aim to consider three aspects to this issue in three separate blog posts. In the current blog post, I consider the extent to which... MORE
September 6, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
At last night's Democratic convention, Cristina Saralegui, formerly of the Spanish-language station Univision, spoke. Early in her speech, she made the following comment: I was 12 years old when, like so many cubanos, my parents fled the Castro regime. For... MORE
August 22, 2012
Cross-country Comparisons
Arnold Kling
1. Robert J. Barro writes, Convergence at a 2% rate implies that it takes 35 years for half of an initial gap to vanish and 115 years for 90% to disappear. Convergence-rate parameters are important to pin down because they... MORE
July 19, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
He writes, Hurst notes that fewer and fewer Americans with a high school education or less are finding employment in manufacturing. This is a trend that accelerated in the late 1990s. Some of those lost jobs resulted in twentysomethings exiting... MORE
July 9, 2012
International Trade
David Henderson
His basic argument is that migration of people across borders creates, in the United States particularly, not so much a melting pot as a "rich stew." (This is not a quote from the book; it's actually from Cato Institute senior... MORE
July 3, 2012
Economic History
Bryan Caplan
Yesterday I stumbled across a obscure experiment in open borders. Under the 1954 Geneva Accords, the Vietnamese were explicitly given 300 days to freely migrate between the Communist north and the non-Communist south. As Wikipedia explains:The agreements allowed a 300-day... MORE
June 29, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
GMU Ph.D. student Sam Wilson recently mentioned on Facebook that he was using the General Social Survey to test for political externalities of immigration. He posted a few crosstabs, but nothing more. I immediately publicly offered him the chance to... MORE
June 24, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
A McKinsey Report says, Based on current trends in population, education, and labor demand, the report projects that by 2020 the global economy could face the following hurdles: 38 million to 40 million fewer workers with tertiary education (college or... MORE
June 19, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Jose Antonio Vargas, the Rosa Parks of U.S. immigration law, is one year over Obama's cut-off for semi-amnesty. But Vargas is too noble not to celebrate:Obama's temporary order, however incremental and incomplete, is the most significant development in the fight... MORE
June 16, 2012
Politics and Economics
Arnold Kling
Bryan writes, Obama's semi-amnesty for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants sounds like the best U.S. political news of the 21st-century. I am less certain. Even if you want open borders, I am not sure that this is how you... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
I don't just think that immigration restrictions are bad policy; I think they're a grotesque crime against humanity - with all that implies. Given this starting point, Obama's semi-amnesty for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants sounds like the best... MORE
May 18, 2012
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
People occasionally say that "Democracy and open borders are incompatible." If they're talking about national democracy, they're right. But suppose we actually lived up to the democratic "one man, one vote ideal" by having a world plebiscite on open borders. ... MORE
May 2, 2012
Cost-benefit Analysis
Bryan Caplan
Moderate immigration reformers usually argue in favor of more skilled immigrants. As a matter of economic efficiency, are they correct? Suppose skilled immigrants earn $30,000 at home and $100,000 here; unskilled immigrants earn $1000 at home and $25,000 here. Then... MORE
April 12, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Alex Tabarrok writes, I was surprised at how close the association is between state level GDP and the urbanization rate GDP measures economic activity. Economic activity is outsourcing. If my daughter does her own laundry, her work does not get... MORE
March 21, 2012
International Trade
David Henderson
Earlier this month, I returned from a 10-day trip to Thailand. Here are some impressions of the Thai economy: "street-level" impressions, not impressions based on looking at aggregate data. Also, I didn't make it to Bangkok, spending the whole time... MORE
March 17, 2012
Labor Market
David Henderson
Public Radio International, to its credit, after some digging into claims made against Apple by Mike Daisey, not only found that he told a number of lies but also retracted its previous coverage in which PRI had assumed that he... MORE
March 7, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
Under the Jim Crow laws, discrimination was not merely legal. It was mandatory. It was illegal for blacks to live, work, and shop in certain places. Virtually everyone today regards this as an enormous injustice. So do I. But I... MORE
March 1, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
Is there some action a government of India could take that would lead the Indian economy to grow like Indonesia's or Egypt's? If so, what, exactly? If not, what is it about the "nature of India" that makes it so?... MORE
February 25, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
When people try to think of ways to ease global poverty, they seldom mention migration. They tend to instead think of things like microcredit. There is nothing wrong with microcredit (the lending of small sums of money to poor entrepreneurs).... MORE
February 23, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Dan Griswold's "Immigration and the Welfare State" was my favorite in the Cato Journal immigration symposium. Highlights:False stereotypes notwithstanding, immigrants have an awesome work ethic:The typical foreign-born adult resident of the United States today is more likely to participate in... MORE
February 22, 2012
Cost-benefit Analysis
Bryan Caplan
I've now read the full Cato Journal immigration issue cover-to-cover. Leaving aside my lead article, here are my brief reactions:1. Gordon Hanson, "Immigration and Economic Growth." Pretty good, especially on the interaction between high-skilled native labor and low-skilled immigrant labor:One... MORE
February 2, 2012
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Nick Schulz makes it. According to recent estimates, the stock of human capital is over $750 trillion.6 According to a research report from JP Morgan called "U.S. Recession and Repression Are Only in Our Minds," this is much greater than... MORE
January 31, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
Reihan Salam replies to my case for free immigration, emphasizing the importance of "social capital":It is possible that cash transfers are the most appropriate vehicle for addressing problems that stem from cultural and economic isolation and family breakdown, but my... MORE
January 27, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
The Cato Journal's special immigration issue is now out. I have the lead article, entitled "Why Should We Restrict Immigration?" My piece sums up everything I've been saying about immigration since I joined the blog: (a) Common-sense morality implies a... MORE
December 3, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
Alan Greenspan, along with George Shultz and John Cochrane, gave short speeches at a Hoover lunch yesterday and took questions and answers. All the speeches were good: Cochrane's was outstanding. I'll be posting in the next day or two, mainly... MORE
November 10, 2011
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
My lecture "Immigration Restrictions: A Solution in Search of a Problem" begins with the following hypothetical:Moved by the plight of Haitian earthquake victims, you go to Haiti to aid in the relief efforts. After two weeks, you're ready to go... MORE
November 7, 2011
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
One of my closest conservative friends is chronically angry about (a) immigration and (b) affirmative action. The irony is that the immigration restrictions he so passionately favors are affirmative action - for native-born workers.Advocates of standard affirmative action see the... MORE
October 22, 2011
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
David made me think a second time about second-best immigration policy. My thoughts on his:1. I think Bryan drastically understates the ability of even fairly low-skilled workers to come up with a substantial five-figure admission fee. (I'm assuming the fee... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
Bryan posted a provocative item yesterday in which he made the case for a 10-percentage-point higher income tax rate on immigrants vs. an up-front fee. I have two comments. But before doing so, I emphasize that Bryan and I are... MORE
October 21, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
As a half-way measure, pro-immigration economists often argue in favor of charging immigrants an admission fee. It's better than not letting them in at all. But there are two big problems:1. Admission fees are especially hard on low-skill immigrants. Even... MORE
October 6, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
People who believe in the importance of IQ often conclude that they've found a scientific rationale for immigration restrictions. They're wrong. But has their mistaken inference led to more restrictive immigration policies? The Immigration Act of 1924 seems like the... MORE
September 27, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Tyler Cowen pointed me to "Immigration, the Republicans, and the End of White America by Ron Unz. It's one of most bizarrely mixed bags I've ever read. The piece combines...1. Wise long-run political advice for Republicans:In states or regions experiencing... MORE
September 21, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
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September 15, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
How open is the U.S. border? There are many measures, but my favorite is: How many months' wages do immigrants pay smugglers ("coyotes") to get them across the border?Coyotes' current price is about $3000 per person.I can't find good recent... MORE
September 13, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Lately I've been delving more deeply into the empirical evidence on the political externalities of immigration. Two striking graphs from Alesina, Glaeser, and Sacerdote's "Why Doesn't the United States Have a European-Style Welfare State?" (BPEA 2001):1. Internationally, racially diverse societies... MORE
September 10, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
Bryan Caplan writes: The children of the foreign-born go far beyond this. Immigrants hurt them the most, but they oppose immigration the least. How is this possible? The best explanation is that the children of the foreign-born, like many other... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Who loses the most from additional immigration? The data is clear: The biggest losers are immigrants who are already here. This is hardly surprising: recent and new arrivals are in close competition because they supply nearly identical skills. Ottaviano and... MORE
September 8, 2011
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
Two of the most popular complaints about immigrants:1. They take our jobs.2. They're all on welfare.There's a major tension between the two complaints: Are the immigrants stealing jobs, or loafing? Contradictions aside, though, you have to wonder: Which complaint do... MORE
September 7, 2011
Economic History
Bryan Caplan
The noble Michael Clemens is taking the efficient, egalitarian, libertarian, utilitarian way to double world GDP to the masses. But one passage made me furrow my brow:All the economic and social arguments against immigrant entry to the workforce could be... MORE
August 29, 2011
Economic Philosophy
David Henderson
Last Thursday I gave a talk to the Tea Party Patriots of Monterey County. I had not had much connection with local tea partiers since the speech I had given at their July 4 event in 2009. My talk was... MORE
August 24, 2011
Economics of Crime
Bryan Caplan
Compare these GAO statistics on "Federal Prison Illegal Alien Inmates" (p.23) to the Bureau of Justice Statistics table on the "Number of Sentenced Inmates in Federal Prisons" (p.10). Both sets of figures come from c.2003. Tell me what you see.... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
If you let the U.S. deport you "voluntarily," you retain the right to legally enter again at a later time. For some people, of course, this is an important right. For most people facing deportation, though, the right of legal... MORE
August 22, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
From long-time EconLog reader Tim Worstall: Having been caught up in the US system once "voluntary departure" is anything but. On entering the country on a 10 year, multi-entry, business visa (I owned a small business in the US at... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Here's a good practical discussion of what the government's removal/return distinction means on the ground. Suppose you're on the authorities' radar. You could fight them in court. But:[I]f one cannot afford to put up such a fight or if one... MORE
August 21, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
I've been hearing a lot about Obama's immigration crackdown lately, so I decided to track down some numbers. The official statistics on deportation run from 1892 to the present. The key definitions:Removal: "the compulsory and confirmed movement of an inadmissible... MORE
August 20, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Two words: open borders. The noble Michael Clemens tells the full story in his new piece in the Journal of Economic Perspectives - ungated. I'm tempted to blockquote the whole piece, but I'll limit myself to a few highlights (footnotes... MORE
August 18, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
Frost: Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down.' From... MORE
July 11, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen writes, job creation from start-ups has been falling since the 1980s. He cites a paper by E.J. Reedy and Robert Litan. Once again, I want to point out that low job creation and stagnation are not the same... MORE
July 7, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
I love immigrants. But I don't mind declining immigration when it's driven by catch-up growth. Here's the NYT on what happened in Mexico over the last decade:Per capita gross domestic product and family income have each jumped more than 45... MORE
June 23, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Has there ever been a better poster child for what I call "Meritocracy Without Borders" than Jose Antonio Vargas? The guy won a Pulitzer prize without the legal right to hold a job. Imagine what he could have accomplished free... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
I am in awe of Jose Antonio Vargas. He has more courage in his little finger than I have in my whole body. Which makes his understated byline all the more puzzling:Jose Antonio Vargas is a former reporter for The... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Incredible piece in today's NYT. Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas reveals that he's been illegally living in the U.S. for twenty years:After my uncle came to America legally in 1991, Lolo tried to get my mother here through a tourist... MORE
June 9, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
From Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea:Unlike the Chinese, the Mongolians allowed the South Korean embassy in Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital, to accept North Korea defectors. In fact, if North Koreans managed to sneak across the Chinese border... MORE
June 4, 2011
Growth: Consequences
Bryan Caplan
Population doesn't just predict Olympic gold medals and movie production; it also predicts the average ranking of countries' top-ten chess players. In a multiple regression, population and per-capita GDP both matter, just like Julian Simon and New Growth Theory tell... MORE
June 3, 2011
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
I still looking for the time to respond to Tino Sanandaji. In the meanwhile, though, here's Henry Farrell on a new APSR paper on the political economy of the welfare state:[T]hey argue that if one tries to hold racial and... MORE
June 1, 2011
Economic History
Bryan Caplan
The Junkers didn't just make a noble attempt at tyrannicide in 1944; according to Exceptional People, Imperial Germany's landed nobility were also good on immigration:Faced by labor shortages because of Germany's economic boom, Prussian landlords recruited Poles and Ukrainians to... MORE
Economic History
Bryan Caplan
More from Exceptional People:On average, 5 percent of the populations of Britain, Ireland, and Norway emigrated every decade between 1850 and 1910, which increased to 14 percent of the Irish population emigrating between 1890 and 1910. By the turn of... MORE
May 31, 2011
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
The Gilded Age was no libertarian paradise, and it certainly had far lower per-capita GDP than the modern world. Nevertheless, the Gilded Age was awesome in many important ways. Above all, as Goldin, Cameron, and Balarajan explain in Exceptional People:... MORE
May 12, 2011
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
I think the political externalities of immigration are greatly overblown. This piece by Chicago Public Policy Ph.D. student Tino Sanandaji presents the other side more effectively than anyone else I've read. I'm too busy to reply for a while, but... MORE
May 11, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Posner's a nervous optimist:But suppose world population will reach 10.1 billion by the end of this century. Would that be a good or a bad thing? Arguably a good thing, on several grounds. One is that it would enable greater... MORE
May 2, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
I just finished volume 13 of The Walking Dead. It's my favorite comics discovery since Barefoot Gen. At first glance, it's mere genre fiction - an unexplained zombie plague destroys civilization in a matter of weeks, leaving a handful of... MORE
April 4, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
I just learned that Josepk Keckeissen, an economics professor at Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala, has died. I had the pleasure of meeting him at the Mont Pelerin Society meetings in Guatemala in November 2006. He had a spark in... MORE
March 15, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Nicolas Maloberti writes, since they relax the constraints faced by governments, immigration barriers should be seen as a major contributor in creating the conditions for the perpetuation of the sort of political arrangements that classical liberals resist. If individual sovereignty... MORE
March 7, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
In langur troops, a core of related females and their offspring associate for up to a few years with unrelated immigrant males. If the newcomers win, they drive the other males away and systematically kill infants less than six months... MORE
March 3, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Yesterday the noble Michael Clemens spoke at GMU about his impending JEP piece on migration. To get a feel for what you missed, check out his Youtube tour de force, "The Biggest Idea in Development that No One Really Tried."... MORE
February 24, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
I highly recommend Kerr and Kerr's NBER Working Paper, "Economic Impacts of Immigration: A Survey." Most of the paper just compiles a lot of evidence with which I was already familiar:1. Immigrants have very little effect on native wages.The documented... MORE
February 3, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
On Wednesday, I'm doing a Students for Liberty webinar. The topic: "Immigration Restrictions: A Solution in Search of a Problem" - or as SfL calls it, "Why Immigration Restrictions are Wacky." Anyone can sign up to participate here. There will... MORE
January 26, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Adam Ozimek uses my own words against me to defend liberaltarianism from my critique:I disagree with Bryan's presumption that domestic distribution actually encourages that much of a restriction on immigration, or at least that the immigration restrictions we have would go... MORE
January 25, 2011
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
Last month I digested my position on the political externalities of immigration, but I'm happy to elaborate. David writes:I could imagine that leading to an additional 300 million people coming into the United States within a couple of years. My... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
While I agree with co-blogger Bryan that it would be desirable to let way more people into the United States, I haven't seen him answer in a satisfactory way some of the arguments against completely open borders. Assume that the... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Markets champ at bit To end global poverty But statists say no.... MORE
January 18, 2011
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
Will immigrants from dysfunctional countries move to the West, become citizens, then vote to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? I've addressed this common fear before - see here, here, and here for starters. But recently, I discussed... MORE
January 17, 2011
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
I don't have much to add to Bryan's thoughts on conservative "overlordship" re immigration. But I do want to reply to some points that his commenters raised. . Commenter Tom Dougherty argues that even though landlords, employers, and grocers are... MORE
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
In his Cato Unbound essay "Against Overlordship," my colleague Dan Klein argued that the heart of the modern liberal position is the idea that the citizens of a country collectively own their country:Although they may not be fully conscious of... MORE
December 23, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
"You should have 2 servants and I should have 8." In my previous post on Roy Beck's dramatic use of gumballs to make a numerate point about immigration, I focused on the fact that, contra Beck, making one million people... MORE
December 21, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
Are you indifferent as to whether Oskar Schindler lived? In every course I teach, I do about a 45-minute segment on numeracy. Numeracy is one of the things I find lacking in people who fall for a lot of politicians'... MORE
December 17, 2010
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
"How can the author of The Myth of the Rational Voter favor open borders?" I've heard the question dozens of times. Once you admit that (a) democracy does what voters want, (b) voters irrationally oppose markets and liberty, (c) voters... MORE
November 30, 2010
Labor Market
Bryan Caplan
Illegal immigrants are one of the few groups that modern Americans openly despise. Indeed, most people can't even say "illegal immigrants" without sneer italics. Illegal immigrants are also one of the few groups that effectively can't sue their employers for... MORE
November 8, 2010
Growth: Causal Factors
Bryan Caplan
I'm open to the possibility that variables besides policy, population, and science belong in a multiplicative growth model. But labor quality - the variable that Clark emphasizes in A Farewell to Alms - just isn't very important. Sure, you can't... MORE
October 28, 2010
Family Economics
Bryan Caplan
If an additional infant born in America has positive externalities, asks Adam Ozimek, shouldn't an additional immigrant who moves to America have positive externalities, too?Since the average immigrant age is around 30, that means when they've arrived they are already... MORE
October 4, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
My EconTalk podcast inspired by my recent GMU talk is now up. As usual, Russ Roberts was an incredibly engaging interviewer. The main novelty: We're such good friends that we decided to make the interview a little more argumentative than... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Russ Roberts interviews Bryan Caplan on the case for open borders. The challenge with making that case is that anything other than xenophobia is counterintuitive. Thorfinn suggests that if the U.S. overspends on health care, it also overspends on education.... MORE
September 18, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
I would say that Bryan Caplan hit a home run with his recent lecture on immigration, but that would be an understatement. Bryan was the Mr. October of economists. He laid out the arguments beautifully and in the right order,... MORE
September 17, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
The video and slides from this week's GMU Econ Society/FFF talk are up. They're easier to follow if you watch them in tandem.P.S. FFF president Jacob Hornberger's review is enough to make me blush.... MORE
August 14, 2010
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
David Henderson
My book review of Dean Baker's short book, Taking Economics Seriously, is just out in Policy Review. Although I liked a fair amount of the book--see my review--Dean restricted himself with his implication that unless a large number of people... MORE
July 8, 2010
I was going to write on the tax advantage to LeBron James in going to income-tax-free Florida until I started to research it and see that, earlier today, Aaron Merchak at the Tax Foundation beat me to it. He did... MORE
June 28, 2010
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
One of my conservative friends keeps telling me that, "The right to associate is the right to exclude." As a libertarian, I agree. But the subtext of his slogan is that libertarians focus far too much on government regulations that... MORE
June 11, 2010
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
David Henderson
Earlier this week, David Friedman announced that he is considering a third edition of one of my favorite books ever: The Machinery of Freedom. I'm not a big fan of the title but I love the contents. One of my... MORE
June 7, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
In this month's Feature Article, Suffolk University economist Ben Powell makes an economic case for immigration. He takes on the following myths: (1) that immigrants are a drag on the economy, (2) that immigrants "take our jobs," and (3) that... MORE
June 4, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
In the comments, Steve Sailer cites:Moynihan's Law of Proximity to the Canadian Border: on just about any socially positive measure, there is a positive correlation between a state's ranking and it's distance from the Canadian border: e.g., Minnesota is usually... MORE
May 10, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
I noticed that none of the commenters on my previous post today commented on the merits of my argument. [Actually, commenter #6, Douglass Holmes, did, but that came in after I started writing this post.] I was disappointed. Instead, most... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
Your Papers Please It's not hard for me to take sides on whether police in Arizona should be able to stop people simply on suspicion that they're in the United States illegally. I think this is one more step on... MORE
April 28, 2010
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
I'm pleased to see one critic of immigration, Richard Hoste, engaging my Comparative Advantage argument for open borders. In fact, he admits that my point, then objects:Unfortunately, the low IQ masses vote. They demand free health care, welfare and schools... MORE
March 9, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
I'm convinced that in case of fiscal crisis, voters will indeed "sit on their hands." I'm willing to believe, however, that voters might still run with their feet. As Tim Kane puts it, "What if they had a fiscal crisis,... MORE
February 17, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Laura Freschi makes it, citing work by William Easterly and Yaw Nyarko. Even using official figures, which likely far undercount the value of remittances by excluding informal channels, remittances sent back by Africans abroad outweigh the cost of educating them... MORE
February 9, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
In going through some articles this weekend, I found the following, reprinted in full. It's titled, "Cubans Want Freedom, Not Welfare" and was published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 30, 1994. The Chicago Tribune published an almost-identical version around... MORE
January 29, 2010
International Trade
David Henderson
My review of Jagdish Bhagwati and Alan S. Blinder, Offshoring of American Jobs, appears in the latest issue of Regulation. I show that although Bhagwati had accused Alan Blinder of dropping his belief in free trade, the accusation was unfounded.... MORE
January 27, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Here at GMU Econ, Michael Clemens is "the one that got away." We tried to hire him a couple years ago, but couldn't get him to yes. His latest piece in the Washington Post is yet another reason to wish... MORE
January 25, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Bill Easterly is a member. 82 Percent of Haitians above this poverty line [$10 per day] are here in the United States. (I calculate this with Lant Pritchett here, ungated version here.) Only the top 1.4 percent of people in... MORE
January 22, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Or we could call it the Let Them In club. Elliott Abrams is a member. Mark Krikorian is not. Krikorian is one of the people who makes it difficult for a libertarian like me to feel comfortable with the conservative... MORE
January 20, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
Jacob Hornberger has an interesting post today comparing Obama and FDR. FDR prevented Jews from immigrating from Europe in the late 1930s. Had he let them in, he would have saved lives. Obama's military is broadcasting to Haitians not to... MORE
December 5, 2009
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
In a Washington Post story today, reporter Philip Rucker bemoans the fact that the expansion of demand for medical care that would follow from the passage of Congress's health care bill would butt up against a restricted supply of doctors.... MORE
November 22, 2009
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
From Jeff Jacoby Those immigrants didn't come here in order to be lawbreakers; they broke a law in order to come here. If you had a store that was the only place people could go to buy bread, and people... MORE
August 6, 2009
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
I usually dislike movies based on true stories. But The Tunnel, a tale of five heroes who tunnel under the Berlin Wall to rescue their family and friends, is excellent. We don't just vicariously enjoy the excitement of digging to... MORE
June 16, 2009
Macroeconomics
Arnold Kling
Why is a FICA cut better than a federally-funded sales tax holiday? The latter: - affects everyone, not just workers - is progressive - encourages consumption without delaying deleveraging The big advantage of a sales tax holiday is that,... MORE
May 26, 2009
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
David Card writes, I show that evidence from cross-city comparisons is remarkably consistent with recent findings from aggregate time series data. Both designs provide support for three key conclusions: (1) workers with below high school education are perfect substitutes for... MORE
May 17, 2009
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
William Voegeli, in an article for the Claremont Review called "The Wilderness Years Begin," cites an article by Ronald Brownstein. Start by considering the electorate's six broadest demographic groups -- white voters with at least a four-year college degree; white... MORE
April 27, 2009
Cross-country Comparisons
David Henderson
In his column in yesterday's New York Times, Cornell University economist Robert Frank writes: Another important message of recent research is that a person's salary depends far more on where she is born than on her talent and effort. For... MORE
April 18, 2009
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Singapore is relatively open to immigration. But Lee Kuan Yew has no apparent sympathy for the Vietnamese boat people:In the weeks before Saigon fell, a huge armada of small boats and ships packed with refugees set out across the South... MORE
February 24, 2009
Fiscal Policy
David Henderson
In a recent NBER working paper, "How Globalization Affects Tax Design," (WP # 14664), James R. Hines, Jr. and Lawrence H. Summers point out that the increasing mobility of capital makes economic activity more sensitive to tax rates, thus increasing... MORE
December 16, 2008
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Thought experiment: What would the world look like if every bit of land had the population density of Singapore? With roughly 149 million square km of land on the planet, and a density of 6489 people per square km in... MORE
November 6, 2008
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
I've previously argued that if you're worried about the effect of immigration on the wages of low-skilled Americans, reducing immigration is overkill. It is more efficient and humane to simply impose a surtax on immigrants, and use the revenue to... MORE
October 20, 2008
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
The economist Charles Tiebout is famous for analogizing local government to perfectly competitive firms. His model inspired this question on my last public finance midterm: If the Tiebout model were correct, how would you expect local governments to raise revenue? ... MORE
August 18, 2008
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
I'm a big fan of immigration, and an old saying warns us that, "If your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." So you might be inclined to chuckle if I promoted immigration as a cure for... MORE
June 11, 2008
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Here's how Dani Rodrik closes his defense of popular anxiety about globalization:And by the way, Harvard cannot fire me because I have tenure (as does Tyler). Which makes any pontification on our part about job anxiety a very poor guide... MORE
May 29, 2008
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Reader Bruce Charlton points me to a post by Half Sigma. Unskilled low-IQ immigrants who come to the U.S. contribute slightly to higher total GDP, but they lower the GDP per capita. Letting in a low-skilled immigrant to mow my... MORE
May 13, 2008
Income Distribution
Arnold Kling
He speaks on this video. He is a very powerful speaker. One theme of the talk is the importance of really creative people to the economy. This may be a valid form of elitism, although I'd like to leaven his... MORE
April 30, 2008
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
A commenter points me to Will Wilkinson's post where he links to The Economist Intelligence Unit's ranking of Denmark as the best country to do business. About the Danish labor market, they write The system combines low non-wage labour costs... MORE
April 19, 2008
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Rising food prices don't mean a lot in the U.S., but in places like Haiti, they're a disaster:Saint Louis Meriska’s children ate two spoonfuls of rice apiece as their only meal recently and then went without any food the following... MORE
February 26, 2008
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
The Daily Telegraph reports, Britain has now lost more than one in 10 of its most skilled citizens, while overall only Mexico has had more people emigrate. ...Britain's exodus is far higher than any of the OECD's other 29 members.... MORE
January 18, 2008
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
I just came across a particularly bizarre Borjas post, entitled "Bloggers as Illegal Immigrants":It is not uncommon to see a Journalist (with a capital J) launch into a diatribe against bloggers and sometimes even call for regulations to stop "citizen... MORE
January 15, 2008
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
I recently saw a bumper sticker that basically said that we should use the Beijing Olympics to shame the Chinese into releasing hundreds of thousands of North Korean refugees. This seems like a worthy cause that even American opponents of... MORE
September 17, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Philippe Legrain says, Illegal immigrants are not the problem, they are the symptom of the real problem: immigration restrictions that are economically stupid, politically unsustainable and morally wrong. Far from protecting society, immigration controls undermine law and order, just as... MORE
September 15, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Nick Schulz writes, The number of new computer science majors today has fallen by half since 2000, according to the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA. Merrilea Mayo, director of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable at the National Academies, says the... MORE
September 11, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
The Wall Street Journal reports, Last year, Ford began offering a buyout package that covers schooling, following an internal 2005 study that showed many of its younger workers would leave if given a chance to attend college. Under this plan,... MORE
August 27, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Chris Hayes inveighs against the economically silly argument that immigrants do jobs Americans don't want:I don’t want to buy a slice of pizza for $45. It doesn’t mean I don’t like pizza! I’m not particularly interested in writing a book... MORE
August 21, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Since the new academic year is about to start, I thought I'd fill you in on what's new at GMU Econ. First, the bad news: Some of our experimentalists are leaving, including Nobel prize-winner Vernon Smith. Second, the good news:... MORE
August 6, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
I can't remember the last time I favorably quoted a politician, but these paragraphs from Arlen Specter are good enough to justify a break with tradition:The main objective in legalizing the 12 million was to eliminate their fugitive status, allowing... MORE
July 31, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Giovanni Peri writes, U.S.-born workers are climbing the educational ladder, acquiring interactive/analytic skills and progressively leaving the manual jobs that would put them in competition with immigrants. If the trend continues as expected, the day is not far off when... MORE
July 18, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
A high fraction of immigrants are young, low-skilled, Hispanic males. Given these demographics, I long assumed that immigrants would have relatively high crime rates. While I kept this problem in perspective, I took it for granted that increased crime was... MORE
July 12, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Greg Mankiw writes, 1. Alan's views are a challenge to the economic mainstream. 2. Alan did not present his new views in a refereed academic publication but instead in Foreign Affairs, a publication aimed at the broad policy community, and... MORE
July 6, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Some opponents of immigration think it benefits the poor at the expense of the rich by increasing support for the welfare state. Other opponents of immigration think it benefits the rich at the expense of the poor by reducing the... MORE
June 27, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Here's a print interview with Trent McBride of Distributed Republic. I had a lot of fun doing it, and there's little overlap with the (also very fun) Nick Schulz TCS interview. The highlight for EconLog readers will no doubt be... MORE
June 22, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
DeLong concludes with a reasonable demand: [T]he thing to object to in the turn this entire debate has taken has been the failure to focus evenly on the consequences for all stakeholders in global migration--look at what happens to everyone,... MORE
June 21, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
The Washington Post reports, Highlighting the challenge a far-flung campaign faces when it comes to message discipline, Romney has had to distance himself from his top economics adviser after Mankiw -- a Princeton-trained economist now teaching at Harvard -- voiced... MORE
June 8, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Russ Roberts writes, There's going to be a point system to determine who gets one of the precious 380,000 visas that are up for grabs. Highly educated people get points. People with skills that are in high demand, whatever that... MORE
June 1, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
James Miller writes, Unskilled Immigrants + Large Welfare State = Higher Taxes I would add Congress + Hundreds of Legislative Pages = Unintended Consequences Up the Wazoo I don't know what the consequences of the law will be, but I... MORE
May 31, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Lant Pritchett writes The principal way rich countries disadvantage the poor world is not through unfair trade, or through intrusive and ineffective aid, or by forcing repayments of debts. The primary policy pursued by every rich country is to prevent... MORE
May 24, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Alvaro Vargas Llosa writes, Whenever there is a disconnect between the law and reality, reality finds ways of making the law irrelevant... It is always hard to oppose an emotional reaction with logical arguments and statistical evidence. Otherwise, the argument... MORE
May 23, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
How's this for Trackback delay - the Economist blog just referenced last year's controversial Econlog post "Are Low-Skilled Americans the Master Race?" In the process, it accidentally underscores the case for congestion charges: America or Europe could easily be demographically... MORE
May 22, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
George Borjas, the most academically reputable critic of immigration in economics, is now blogging. To be frank, I just don't get him. There isn't a decent economist alive who would oppose free trade in textiles by pointing out that it... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Several readers have asked me to discuss the effects of immigration on policy, and sometime in the next few weeks I'm going to satisfy their request. But here's a quick reaction to Arnold's approving (?) link to Bill Whittle's worries... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
A reader asks, Bryan Caplan's new book (which I look forward to) says voters are irrational. Do you think they would be more or less rational in a society with high migration rates? I am reading Amy Chua's World on... MORE
May 18, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
I've often heard opponents of Latin American immigration complain that they're lowering our average IQ. Here's Tommy commenting on Tyler: What matters in a society, in any society, is a healthy mean IQ. I've noticed a tendency on this blog... MORE
May 17, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Further down the comments on Tyler's piece on education, Steve Sailer asks a (seemingly) pointed question: Tyler, If you came flat out and told the truth -- that IQ matters a lot in terms of overall economic productivity and that... MORE
May 8, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Michael Barone writes, Start with the Coastal Megalopolises: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago (on the coast of Lake Michigan), Miami, Washington and Boston. Here is a pattern you don't find in other big cities: Americans moving... MORE
April 18, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
This article would be good to give to freshman econ students--and others. India has technical institutes that seldom have electricity, and colleges with no computers. There are universities where professors seldom show up. Textbooks can be decades old. Instruction is... MORE
March 28, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Today's Wall Street Journal reports on Alan Blinder's estimates of jobs that might go offshore. he has been refining those estimates, by painstakingly ranking 817 occupations, as described by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to identify how likely each is... MORE
March 16, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
George Borjas is the source of the widely-quoted factoid that immigration has reduced the wages of low-skilled natives by 8%. So I was quite surprised to discover the following table when I was flipping through Borjas' labor textbook:Short Run Long... MORE
March 8, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Bryan lauds high-skilled immigrants. Matthew Quirk talks about Mexican immigrants. By 2003, ...the roughly 20 million Mexican-origin workers in America create a larger gross product than Mexico itself. ...Five predominantly rural Mexican states—Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacán, San Luis Potosí, and Zacatecas—send... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
The most elite man alive has sensibly radical views on immigration. And he's suggested a great nerdy slogan, too: infinite visas. Perhaps he should found the Brains Against Brain Drain Club? I can't help but recall the lead quote to... MORE
February 24, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
From Economic Turbulence, by Clair Brown, John Haltiwanger, and Julia Lane: The basic message here is that businesses with higher-quality work forces and lower churning are more likely [to] survive...Wal-Mart has succeeded with a low workforce quality and high worker... MORE
January 8, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
During my stay in SoCal, a surprising thought kept returning to me: Why hasn't government solved the problem of homelessness? I know this question seems out of character. But I not saying that government should solve the problem of homelessness;... MORE
January 2, 2007
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Dwight Lee writes, The suggested policy is straightforward. Simply give Americans the right to sell their citizenships to non-Americans, with the sellers having to leave the country and the buyers allowed to move in with all the rights and opportunities... MORE
December 21, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Before blogging, there were listservs. I ran one for Armchair Economists. (Technically, it's still up, but competition from blogging has all but killed it. That's Creative Destruction for you...) One of our liveliest debates revolved around the doughnut industry. In... MORE
November 30, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
He writes, Mexican immigrants used to have higher-than-average levels of education, but today the average male Mexican migrant has lower-than-average education by Mexican standards... A better immigration policy would tighten the border, while allowing in more legal immigrants from Mexico... MORE
November 7, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Matt Yglesias is puzzled that my piece in Cato Unbound uses immigration as an example where the public's misconceptions have led to pernicious policies: Strangely, he takes immigration as his main example. If I were trying to devise an example... MORE
October 4, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Be careful what you wish for on border security and illegal immigration. Here is one story. Carnes ended up with less than 100 workers and fell two weeks behind, with bits and pieces of the fields unpicked. His income fell... MORE
September 27, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Michael Kremer and Stanley Watt write Since high-skilled natives with a higher opportunity cost of time are more likely to purchase domestic services from immigrants, native high-skilled workers will spend more time working in the labor market. To the extent... MORE
September 22, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
was written by Rich Lowry. The key is stepped-up interior enforcement to cut off the jobs magnet that draws so many illegals here. My guess is that the adverse economic consequences of shutting down this market could be larger than... MORE
September 18, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Sebastian Mallaby writes, In Let Their People Come, a new book published by the Center for Global Development, Lant Pritchett reports that if rich countries permitted extra immigration equivalent to 3 percent of their labor force, the citizens of poor... MORE
August 26, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
A news story reports Princeton professors Gene Grossman and Esteban Rossi-Hansberg argued that wages for the least-skilled blue collar jobs had been rising since 1997 as outsourcing boosted productivity. The intuition of their argument can be found in this paper.... MORE
August 22, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Immigration skeptics like Victor Davis Hanson, author of Mexifornia, warn that Mexican culture is supplanting our own. My knee-jerk reaction is to say "Mildly. What's the big deal?" But a fine essay by Douglas Massey has shown me the error... MORE
August 15, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Richard Rodriguez writes, The contribution of illegal lives is never counted—never—as praise or admiration or courage or virtue of any kind. It is as though America, having benefited from illegal labor, pretends that the transaction was one of middle-class benevolence.... MORE
August 8, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Anthony de Jasay takes an "on the one hand, on the other hand" approach to immigration. One strand of libertarian doctrine holds that it is precisely private property that should serve as the sole control mechanism of immigration. Immigrants should... MORE
June 28, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Jerry Bowyer writes, If 200 years from now America will be filled with people who know and love the ideas of Jefferson and Madison -- but these people are overwhelmingly dark skinned -- will this be good or bad? That's... MORE
June 13, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Mankiw's dogs Tobin and Keynes just got a playmate... a bulldog named Caplan.... MORE
June 11, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
A while back I polemically asked, "Are low-skilled Americans the master race?" The targets of my ridicule called me an elitist. But my elitism is nothing compared to this gem from Dennis Mangan: All of his [Mankiw's] academic theorizing about... MORE
June 1, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
A number of economists have pledged their support for free immigration for professors in response to a challenge my Matt Yglesias. I'm happy to sign on. But I'm rather puzzled by this whole discussion. Correct me if I'm wrong, but... MORE
May 17, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Survey USA ran a neat survey about immigration late last year. They asked people in all 50 states: Which of these 2 statements do you agree with more: One: Immigrants take jobs away from Americans. Two: Immigrants do jobs that... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Alex Tabarrok composed a letter to the political community from the economics community on immigration. He has posted the letter. Here is an excerpt: Immigrants do not take American jobs. The American economy can create as many jobs as there... MORE
May 9, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Don't miss Arnold's link to Val MacQueen's great essay on the triumph of the Ugandan refugees. I especially liked the opening: His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the... MORE
April 19, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
When I scoffed at the idea that we should help low-skilled Americans by keeping out and deporting immigrants, some angry folks retorted: "We Americans built this country! That makes it ours, and entitles us to keep them out." Which makes... MORE
April 18, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
George Borjas writes, Immigration policy is just another redistribution program. In the short run, it transfers wealth from one group (workers) to another (employers). Whether or not such transfers are desirable is one of the central questions in the immigration... MORE
April 3, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
My latest essay uses the N-word. What should you call someone who wants government to provide for our education, competitiveness, and health care but whose concern about "us" stops at the border? The obvious label would be national socialist. But... MORE
March 28, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
I occasionally quip that I like the whole range of economists from Mises to Krugman. We can squabble amongst ourselves, but it's amazing how much we really agree. Now Krugman is voicing doubts about immigration, but once again, he doesn't... MORE
March 26, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
It's not often that economic literacy has half a million people march on its behalf. From the AP: LOS ANGELES (AP) - Thousands of immigration advocates marched through downtown Los Angeles in one of the largest demonstrations for any cause... MORE
March 22, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Despite Harold Meyerson's make-work bias interpretation, Blinder's actual paper says, The job categories that will move offshore as the Information Age progresses will not disappear entirely from the U.S. and other rich countries. But their shares of the work forces... MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
Two painfully bad op-eds in the Washington Post today. First, Robert J. Samuelson writes, What we have now -- and would with guest workers -- is a conscious policy of creating poverty in the United States while relieving it in... MORE
March 16, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
In "Educated Preferences: Explaining Attitudes Toward Immigration In Europe," Hainmueller and Hiscox confirm what I've been telling economists for years: Low-skilled workers are more opposed to immigration because they are less economically literate, not because they selfishly calculate that immigration... MORE
February 12, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
If you want to get a U.S. student visa, you're supposed to demonstrate "nonimmigrant intent." As one immigration lawyer puts it: "the student must have 'nonimmigrant intent' – that is, an intention to return to their home county and not... MORE
January 25, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
A number of smart people, Charles Murray included, are worried about "dysgenic pressure." The story, in brief, is that: 1. Intelligence is highly heritable. 2. The more intelligent have fewer kids than less intelligent. 3. Our average IQ is declining,... MORE
January 21, 2006
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Almost no one wants to be called a "eugenicist." It's a term of abuse. But if you go back to the origin of the term, it basically amounts to the following two claims: Claim #1: One of the main causes... MORE
December 8, 2005
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
Asians have often been called the "model minority" - non-whites who by most measures are better-off and more successful than whites. But if you imagine that no one would complain about a positive stereotype of a minority, you don't know... MORE
November 30, 2005
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
In a letter submitted to the Wall Street Journal, Cafe Hayek blogger Don Boudreaux observes: [O]pponents of openness often allege that immigrants come here to free-ride on taxpayer-supplied welfare. That this allegation is a canard is revealed by the innumerable... MORE
November 1, 2005
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
In September, Arnold wisely asked: On the issue of poverty and immigration, which Robert J. Samuelson raised, I would ask, "Where would you prefer that people be poor?" That is, do we want to insist that poor Hispanics should remain... MORE
September 26, 2005
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Arnold Kling
I write, On the issue of poverty and immigration, which Robert J. Samuelson raised, I would ask, "Where would you prefer that people be poor?" That is, do we want to insist that poor Hispanics should remain in their native... MORE
July 21, 2005
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
I've taken cruises to Bermuda, the Bahamas, and in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. And of course I'm not one to just sit back and enjoy the food. My mind soon wanders back to economics and philosophy. Tyler Cowen's recent... MORE
July 5, 2005
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Bryan Caplan
The Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science blog features an interesting graph comparing the actual and perceived percentange of foreign-born residents in 20 European countries. Consistent with my research on anti-foreign bias, people overestimate the percentage of foreigners in... MORE
March 20, 2005
Macroeconomics
Arnold Kling
Robert Hall writes Unemployment rises not because of a bulge of layoffs but because workers entering job search—from previous jobs, from school, and from home activities—experience unusual difficulty in finding jobs. Among other things, this means that stories on layoffs,... MORE
November 9, 2004
International Trade
Arnold Kling
The link may only work for a day, but Tyler Cowen and John Irons go at it on the online WSJ over outcourcing. I think that Tyler supplies all of the highlights: Outsourcing resembles technical progress in its economics; in... MORE
October 13, 2004
International Trade
Arnold Kling
Bruce Bartlett surveys recent cost-benefit analysis. In July, economist Martin N. Baily, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton, looked at who benefits from outsourcing. He found that... on balance, the U.S. economy gains $1.12 to $1.14... MORE
October 7, 2004
International Trade
Arnold Kling
I attended most of this Cato Institute Conference on trade, outsourcing, and the labor market. A few notes: Federal Reserve Board Vice-Chairman Roger Ferguson's opening speech was outstanding. I commend it to anyone who teaches undergraduate economics as a useful... MORE
September 29, 2004
International Trade
Arnold Kling
Daniel Drezner writes that actual data on outsourcing has been hard to come by. Now, however, we can add some actual figures to the overheated debate. The Government Accountability Office has issued its first review of the data, and one... MORE
September 20, 2004
Labor Market
Arnold Kling
Bruce Nussbaum of Business Week writes, the surge in companies going to India, China, and Eastern Europe in search of very cheap brainpower may soon be coming to an end -- far sooner than anyone has anticipated. Why? Simply put,... MORE
Business Economics
Arnold Kling
The Economist writes, SO YOU want to withdraw cash from your bank account? Do it yourself. Want to install a broadband internet connection? Do it yourself. Need a boarding card issued for your flight? Do it yourself... Many people complain... MORE
September 9, 2004
International Trade
Arnold Kling
Can trade make us worse off? Evidently, Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson is going to make that claim. Trade, in other words, may not always work to the advantage of the American economy, according to Mr. Samuelson. In an interview last... MORE
August 24, 2004
Labor Market
Arnold Kling
Julian Sanchez picked up from Gene Healy a Times of India story with a new twist on outsourcing. Says a programmer on Slashdot.org who outsourced his job: "About a year ago I hired a developer in India to do my... MORE
August 13, 2004
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Michael Munger
by Michael Munger Guest Blogger "Tiebout sorting", named after Charles Tiebout (1924-1968) is one of the ways that public economists have described the effects of differences in levels of public expenditure and variations in policy in a federal system. The... MORE
May 21, 2004
Social Security
Arnold Kling
The International Economy Magazine collects twenty opinions on the issue of demographic change in one issue. For example, Michael Boskin writes, The United States is in far better shape to deal with these issues than the bulk of the developed... MORE
April 27, 2004
International Trade
Arnold Kling
I'm at a conference put on by the Milken Institute, and hence the light blogging. At one session on outsourcing and jobs, Clarence Schmitz, the CEO of an outsourcing firm, said that they had anticipated needing 1.2 Indian workers to... MORE
April 8, 2004
International Trade
Arnold Kling
When you open up trade opportunities, will the benefits go to people with high incomes or people with low incomes? Brad DeLong walks through the logic that says that if foreigners have a comparative advantage in high-income occupations (such as... MORE
February 24, 2004
Labor Market
Arnold Kling
Stuart Anderson looks at the arithmetic of Indiana's effort to save jobs from outsourcing. Out of 65 contract employees, Tata would have employed a number of Hoosiers through an Indiana-based subcontractor, but would also have used Indians currently employed by... MORE
February 16, 2004
International Trade
Arnold Kling
Anti-outsourcing alarmists say that India has an "infinite supply of cheap labor." If that were true, then we would not be reading stories like this. According to a Nasscom Hewitt Total Rewards Survey 2003, the entry level salary (junior software... MORE
February 8, 2004
Labor Market
Arnold Kling
Caitlin Flanagan's cover story (as of this writing, not yet on line) for the March issue of The Atlantic Monthly is on the crucial role played by female immigrant workers in the "have-it-all" lifestyle of professional women with children. one... MORE
February 2, 2004
International Trade
Arnold Kling
I received a lot of pushback on my earlier post. Comments and email have pointed out that (a) the cost of living really is five times lower in India and (b) Indian expatriates are indeed moving back home to take... MORE
February 1, 2004
International Trade
Arnold Kling
An engineer from India emails me, The purchasing power parity in India is 5 compared to USA - a 20000 $ programmer in India is actually making 100,000 $ in terms of his spending power. ...an average programmer in India... MORE
January 28, 2004
International Trade
Arnold Kling
It's the topic du jour. Here is Dan Pink's story for Wired. A century ago, 40 percent of Americans worked on farms. Today, the farm sector employs about 3 percent of our workforce. But our agriculture economy still outproduces all... MORE
January 22, 2004
International Trade
Arnold Kling
Two articles today discuss economic ideas for fine-tuning immigration policy. James Miller writes, The guest worker program should allocate visas to communities and then permit each community to decide how many of their visas to issue. For example, if Northampton,... MORE
January 11, 2004
Labor Market
Arnold Kling
In my essay, I made an off-hand comment. If the households and businesses that hire illegal immigrants do so in order to save the cost of paying taxes, and they will not pay the taxes even when an employment agency... MORE
August 20, 2003
International Trade
Arnold Kling
Brad DeLong makes another attempt to explain the economics of outsourcing. Remember: few would be worried about "outsourcing" if the U.S. unemployment rate were still close to four percent, rather than at the above six percent level that it is.... MORE
July 22, 2003
International Trade
Arnold Kling
The New York Times has several recent articles on international trade. One piece discusses IBM's evaluation of outsourcing. in recent weeks many politicians in Washington, including some in the Bush administration, have begun voicing concerns about the issue during a... MORE
July 18, 2003
International Trade
Arnold Kling
I try to make the classic case for free trade in an article about outsourcing to India. In fact, a good way to attain clarity in discussing the issue of outsourcing is to substitute the phrase "economic activity" for outsourcing:... MORE
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