Events

25 January 2021 - Online Seminar Series

Webinar: The Economics of Migration ( Junior Seminar)

Date & Time:  January 25th 17h30 (CET)

Speakers: Lukas Delgado-Prieto (UC3M)

Register here (Zoom)

Topic: Dynamics of Local Wages and Employment: Evidence from the Venezuelan Immigration in Colombia

Abstract:

The unprecedented socioeconomic and political deterioration of Venezuela has triggered a massive outflow of people leaving the country since 2016, both in a voluntary and a forced manner. Colombia has been the major receiver country with more than 1.2 million working-age Venezuelans (4.1% of the working-age population living in Colombia) as of 2019. I use this quasi-natural experiment to identify the causal impact of the Venezuelan immigration on the Colombian labor market. To analyze dynamic treatment effects I implement an event-study design with two different shift-share instruments. For both instruments I find that immigration from Venezuela had a highly negative short-run effect on local native wages since 2017, and the impact is mainly suffered by less skilled workers and workers without access to social security. Moreover, wages in lower percentiles of the native local wage distribution are severely more affected compared to those in upper percentiles. In terms of native employment, I find a delayed negative response after controlling for preexisting trends. On aggregate, the supply shock affected mainly the informal labor market with lower wages and higher employment on average.

Read the paper here.

______________________

About the seminar series:
This is a joint initiative of LISER's Crossing Borders research programme, CERDI, PSE,the University of Luxembourg and Universidad Carlos III. Its objective is to propose an opportunity to migration scholars for exchanging under the current exceptional circumstances.
Senior Seminars are held on Wednesdays at 17h30 CET.
Junior Seminars are held on Mondays at 17h30 CET
To learn more and view all Seminars click here