Low-Wage Jobs, Foreign-Born Workers, and Firm Performance
Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes, Esther Arenas-Arroyo, Parag Mahajan and Bernhard Schmidpeter
How do migrant workers impact firm performance? By exploiting an unexpected change in firms' likelihood of securing low-wage workers through a guest program and using administrative data for the United States, we find that access to H-2B workers raises firms' annual revenues and survival likelihood without crowding out other forms of employment. These effects do not generate negative spillovers on competitor firms. Our results support the notion that guest worker programs can help address labor shortages without harming on incumbent workers.
Working Paper
Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes, Esther Arenas-Arroyo, Parag Mahajan and Bernhard Schmidpeter
How do migrant workers impact firm performance? By exploiting an unexpected change in firms' likelihood of securing low-wage workers through a guest program and using administrative data for the United States, we find that access to H-2B workers raises firms' annual revenues and survival likelihood without crowding out other forms of employment. These effects do not generate negative spillovers on competitor firms. Our results support the notion that guest worker programs can help address labor shortages without harming on incumbent workers.
Working Paper