Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Working Papers in Economics,
University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

No 435: Wages and Immigrant Occupational Composition in Sweden

Jorgen Hansen (), Roger Wahlberg and Sharif Faisal
Additional contact information
Jorgen Hansen: Concordia University, CIREQ, CIRANO and IZA
Roger Wahlberg: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG
Sharif Faisal: Concordia University

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between immigrant occupational composition and wages in Sweden. Effects of changes in proportion of immigrant workers in different occupations on the wage levels of both natives and immigrants are estimated. Our results suggest that increases in immigrant density have only small effects on wages and that the negative relationship between wages and the proportion of immigrant workers in an occupation, observed in data, is almost entirely accounted for by measured and unmeasured worker skills. These results suggest that wage differences across occupations with different densities of immigrants are mainly due to quality sorting and to a lesser extent due to the existence of discrimination.

Keywords: Immigrants; Refugees; Occupational Segregation; Composition of Jobs; Quality Sorting; Wages

JEL-codes: J31; J71

35 pages, March 17, 2010

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