How relevant is the origin of human capital for immigrant wages? Evidence from Spain


Autoria(s): Sanromá Meléndez, Esteban; Ramos Lobo, Raúl; Simón Pérez, Hipólito J.
Contribuinte(s)

Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Análisis Económico Aplicado

Universidad de Alicante. Instituto Interuniversitario de Economía Internacional

Territorio y Movilidad. Mercados de Trabajo y Vivienda

Data(s)

26/09/2016

26/09/2016

01/05/2015

Resumo

The objective of this article is to analyse the role played by the different components of human capital in the wage determination of immigrants in the Spanish labour market. Using microdata from the Encuesta Nacional de Inmigrantes, we find that human capital of immigrants acquired in Spain presents higher returns than human capital obtained in home countries, reflecting the limited international transferability of the latter. This result is reinforced by the strong heterogeneity observed in wage returns to different kinds of human capital across immigrants from different origins and, in particular, by the fact that immigrants with the higher returns to human capital acquired in their home countries are those coming from other developed countries and Latin America, the two regions more similar to Spain in terms of development and/or culture.

This study received financial support from research projects ECO2013-41310-R, ECO2013-41022-R, and CSO2011-29943-C03-02.

Identificador

Journal of Applied Economics. 2015, 18(1): 149-172. doi:10.1016/S1514-0326(15)30007-6

1514-0326 (Print)

1667-6726 (Online)

http://hdl.handle.net/10045/58283

10.1016/S1514-0326(15)30007-6

Idioma(s)

eng

Publicador

Elsevier

Relação

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1514-0326(15)30007-6

Direitos

© 2015 Universidad del CEMA. Published by Elsevier B.V.

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Palavras-Chave #Immigration #Wages #Human capital #Assimilation #Economía Aplicada
Tipo

info:eu-repo/semantics/article