Research

Publications

NBER working paper 30811, Boston Fed 66th Economic Conference.

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic produced a significant decline in international immigration to the USA between 2020 and 2021. This paper documents the timing, characteristics, and heterogeneity of the change in immigration across states and economic sectors. Additionally, we describe the trends in internal native mobility in the USA prior to and after the pandemic, investigating whether natives responded to the decrease in immigration by relocating either geographically or across sectors. Despite the substantial drop in international migration, we do not observe any significant changes in native internal mobility. Employing a panel regression and a shift-share IV, we study the effect of foreign immigration, the emergence of remote-work, and changes in labor demand on cross-state native mobility. Our results indicate that the decline in immigration following COVID-19 and the differential availability of remote-work opportunities across sectors and states did not drive changes in natives’ cross- state or cross-sector mobility.

Working Papers

Abstract: This paper studies how violence due to the war on drugs in Mexico affects the social and economic integration of Mexican migrants in the United States. I combine detailed administrative data on Mexican migrants' municipal origins with US Census data on their naturalization, intermarriage, and economic behavior. To instrument for violence in Mexican municipalities, I exploit the pre-war geographic distribution of drug trade organizations within Mexico together with time variation in cocaine supply shocks originating in Colombia. Focusing on migrants who arrived in the US before the war on drugs, I find that ongoing heightened violence significantly increases their propensity to naturalize and marry US citizens, who are particularly naturalized Mexicans. The marriage effects are larger for recent and less educated migrants. However, I find no evidence of significant changes in labor market behavior or human capital accumulation. I argue that these results are driven by a decrease in migrants' intentions to return to Mexico. Analysis using the Mexican Census suggests a reduction in return migration flows to municipalities experiencing heightened violence, which supports this mechanism.


Policy Briefs