Data: 21/06/2010 12.30-14.30

Autore: Francesca Mazzolari - Centro Studi Confindustria - University of California Irvine

Abstract: We study the effects of immigration on the diversity of consumption choices. Using data on the universe of business establishments located in California between 1992 and 2002 matched with Census of Population data, we first establish that immigrant inflows boost employment in the retail sector and accommodation and food services sectors. In the retail sector, we find that immigration is associated with fewer stand-alone retail stores, and a greater number of large and in particular big-box retailers – evidence that likely contradicts a diversity-enhancing effect of immigration. On the other hand, focusing more sharply on the restaurant sector, for which we can better identify the types of products consumed by customers, the evidence indicates that immigration is associated with increased ethnic diversity of restaurants. Additional evidence suggests that this latter effect comes in part from the comparative advantage of immigrants in the production of ethnic goods.
* Both authors are research fellows at IZA. Neumark is also a research associate of the NBER and a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. We are grateful to the University of California Labor and Employment Research Fund and the United Nations for research support, to Daria Burnes for outstanding research assistance, to Giuseppe Ragusa for help with programming, and to Saul Lach, Ken Small, seminar participants at UCI and the University of Milan, and anonymous referees for helpful comments. Any views are our own, and not those of the University of California, Confindustria, the United Nations, or the Public Policy Institute of California. This paper circulated earlier with the title “Beyond Wages: The Effects of Immigration on the Scale and Composition of Output.”
Keywords: Body height, BMI, obesity, income, health.