The impact of immigration on the Portuguese labour market

  • Mariana Cardoso dos Santos (Student)

Student thesis: Master's Thesis

Abstract

This dissertation examines the impact of immigration on the Portuguese labour market. Namely, on the average wage and wage distribution of natives, and on the employment rate, unemployment rate, and labour force participation rate of natives. Studies on the effects of immigrants on the labour market in Portugal are still scarce. The subject has become growingly important with the increase in immigration over the past two decades. The analysis is framed into a pure spatial theoretical model, without pre­allocation of workers into skill groups, and uses a dataset from a quarterly sample survey that characterizes the labour market in Portugal between 2003 and 2019. The impact of immigrants on natives is estimated through an instrumental variable approach using a difference ­in­difference strategy. The analysis shows that immigration does not have a significant impact on natives’ wages, but tends more towards a negative impact, especially in the lowest percentiles. In addition, immigrants negatively impact the labour force participation rate of natives, which is mainly driven by the negative impact on the employment rate of natives. In terms of heterogeneity, men are more negatively affected by immigrants than women, and natives with low education are also more harmed when compared to natives with higher levels of education.
Date of Award25 Jan 2023
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • Universidade Católica Portuguesa
SupervisorHugo Reis (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Immigration
  • Impact
  • Wages
  • Wage distribution
  • Employment
  • Labour

Designation

  • Mestrado em Economia

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