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Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
A Category Archive (100 entries)
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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
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