The effect of recent technological change on US immigration policy
The paper titled "The effect of recent technological change on US immigration policy" by Björn Brey has been published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.
abstract
Does technological change shape immigration policy in the United States? I argue that if technological change tilts the composition of workers towards manual employment, this leads to a more restrictive immigration policy. A theoretical model and empirical evidence analyzing voting on immigration bills in the House of Representatives supports this. Policy makers representing districts exposed to manual-biased technological change are more likely to support restricting low-skill immigration. Results are confirmed using specific automation technologies: IT capital and industrial robot adoption. The analysis is completed by (i) additional results on trade policy and political polarization, (ii) further stylized evidence on the mechanism.