Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
2005
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
PhD
College
Chambers College of Business and Economics
Department
Economics
Committee Chair
Santiago M Pinto
Abstract
This dissertation includes essays on legal and illegal immigrations and outsourcing. Chapter 1 introduces the paths that economics has blazed into in the areas of legal and illegal immigration and outsourcing. The first essay, in Chapter 2, presents a Cournot duopoly model of a domestic unionized firm and a foreign firm, where the domestic firm has an option to shift all of its production abroad. An increase in the bargaining power of an employment oriented union will increase domestic output and utility of the union.;The second essay, in Chapter 3, examines illegal immigration in the U.S. from Mexico using annual data on the U.S. border apprehensions of illegal migrants from Mexico and border enforcement. The results support the hypothesis, that recent legal immigrants from Mexico facilitate the flow of illegal migrants from Mexico. This result suggests that large scale amnesties that provide legal status for illegal immigrants should be avoided, as they provide unhealthy stimulus for future illegal immigration. The third essay, in Chapter 4, develops a gravity model of legal immigration using balanced panel data. Higher index of Economic Freedom is found to be associated with increased migration flows. Chapter 5 provides the summary of the dissertation and concluding remarks.
Recommended Citation
Melkumian, Arsen V., "Three essays on immigration and outsourcing" (2005). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 4174.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/4174