APL (Ajiken Power Lunch)

Thursday, 5th of September, 12:00 to 1:15 p.m.

IDE-JETRO C23 Meeting Room 　

This paper investigates the effects of immigration on Japanese labor market outcomes by utilizing an acute increase in immigrants caused by the 1990 Amendment of the Immigration Control and Refugee Act (ICRRA). In addition, we examine the effect of an increase in imports from China and exports to China to uncover the nature of these shocks: the supply shock increasing workforce versus the goods market shock increasing supply of goods or the demand for goods without affecting the size of the workforce. Our results show that immigration reduced the income level and increased the unemployment rate in the short run. The import shock and export shock are shown to be a negative shock and positive shock for labor markets, respectively. Interestingly, high school students reacted to the migration shock by increasing their enrollment to higher educational institutions. While the import shock did not affect the share of high school students seeking higher education, the export shock reduced it. These effects on higher education might explain the positive yet insignificant effect of immigration on the income level and declining effects of exports on the same variable in the long run.

Dr Akira Sasahara (Keio University)

Yuta Watabe