High Skilled Immigration Policy and Union Wage Setting

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of high skilled immigration on employment and net income in the host economy where the market for low skilled labor is distorted by union wage setting and a redistributive unemployment benefit scheme. I show that high skilled immigration can increase as well as decrease low skilled employment depending on how the public budget adjusts to immigration and that the effects on workers' net income levels may vary substantially. I conclude that a Pareto improvement can be achieved if the unemployment benefit level remains unaffected by high skilled immigration.