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Immigration, integration, and the informal economy in OECD countries

Author

Listed:
  • Oussama Ben Atta

    (EPEE - Centre d'Etudes des Politiques Economiques - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - Université Paris-Saclay, TREE - Transitions Energétiques et Environnementales - UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Isabelle Chort

    (TREE - Transitions Energétiques et Environnementales - UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IUF - Institut universitaire de France - M.E.N.E.S.R. - Ministère de l'Education nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche, IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit - Institute of Labor Economics)

  • Jean-Noël Senne

    (RITM - Réseaux Innovation Territoires et Mondialisation - Université Paris-Saclay)

Abstract
This article assesses the impact of immigrant and asylum seeker inflows on the size of the informal sector in host countries from a macroeconomic perspective. We use two indicators of informality provided by Medina and Schneider (2019) and Elgin and Oztunali (2012) combined with migration data from the OECD International Migration Database and data on asylum seeker flows from the UNHCR for the period 1997-2017. We estimate a first-difference model, instrumenting immigrant and asylum seeker flows by their predicted values derived from the estimation of a pseudo-gravity model. Results suggest that both immigrant and asylum seeker inflows increase the size of the informal sector at destination, but the size of the effect is very small: a one percentage point increase in the stock of immigrants as a share of population leads to an increase of the informal sector as a share of GDP of 0.05-0.06 percentage points. Unsurprisingly, the effect is about four times larger for asylum seeker flows, but remains economically insignificant. We investigate several potential channels, and find that integration policies do matter. We find no impact of imported norms or institutions, but rather that the effect is larger in destination countries with a large informal sector. A larger diversity in incoming flows is associated with a smaller impact on the informal sector. Finally, we document the dynamics with a VAR model.

Suggested Citation

  • Oussama Ben Atta & Isabelle Chort & Jean-Noël Senne, 2022. "Immigration, integration, and the informal economy in OECD countries," Working papers of Transitions Energétiques et Environnementales (TREE) hal-03822494, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wptree:hal-03822494
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    migration; informal economy; asylum seekers; integration policies; shadow economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • E26 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Informal Economy; Underground Economy
    • J46 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Informal Labor Market
    • K37 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Immigration Law

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