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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Measuring Immigration’S Effects On Labor Demand: A Reexamination Of The Mariel Boatlift, Örn B. Bodvarsson, Hendrik F. Van Den Berg, Joshua J. Lewer
Measuring Immigration’S Effects On Labor Demand: A Reexamination Of The Mariel Boatlift, Örn B. Bodvarsson, Hendrik F. Van Den Berg, Joshua J. Lewer
Department of Economics: Faculty Publications
Why do immigration shocks tend to have benign effects on native wages? One reason is that immigrants as consumers contribute to the demand for their services. We model an economy where workers spend their wages on a locally produced good, then test it via a reexamination of the 1980 “Mariel Boatlift” using Wacziarg’s Channel Transmission methodology. Current Population Survey data on workers in 9 different retail labor markets and Survey of Buying Power data on retail spending by consumers in Miami and four comparison cities are used. We find strong evidence that the Mariel Boatlift augmented labor demand.
The Relative Income Theory Of Consumption: A Synthetic Keynes-Duesenberry-Friedman Model, Thomas I. Palley
The Relative Income Theory Of Consumption: A Synthetic Keynes-Duesenberry-Friedman Model, Thomas I. Palley
PERI Working Papers
This paper presents a theoretical model of consumption behavior that synthesizes the seminal contributions of Keynes (1936), Friedman (1956) and Duesenberry (1948). The model is labeled a “relative permanent income” theory of consumption. The key feature is that the share of permanent income devoted to consumption is a negative function of household relative permanent income. The model generates patterns of consumption spending consistent with both long-run time series data and modern empirical findings that high-income households have a higher propensity to save. It also explains why consumption inequality is less than income inequality.