Mexico–U.S. Immigration: Mexico–U.S. Immigration

• Autores: Rebecca Lessem
• Localización: Review of economic studies, ISSN 0034-6527, Vol. 85, Nº 4, 2018, págs. 2353-2388
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In this article, I study how relative wages and border enforcement affect immigration from Mexico to the U.S. To do this, I develop a discrete choice dynamic programming model where people choose from a set of locations in both the U.S. and Mexico, while accounting for the location of one’s spouse when making decisions. I estimate the model using data on individual immigration decisions from the Mexican Migration Project. Counterfactuals show that a 10% increase in Mexican wages reduces migration rates and durations, overall decreasing the number of years spent in the U.S. by about 5%. A 50% increase in enforcement reduces migration rates and increases durations of stay in the U.S., and the overall effect is a 7% decrease in the number of years spent in the U.S.