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Papers by ana ferrer

Journal of International Migration and Integration

The behaviour of married immigrant women regarding fertility and labour markets is an essential p... more The behaviour of married immigrant women regarding fertility and labour markets is an essential piece to understand the economic and cultural integration of immigrant households. However, the contribution of married immigrant women to the Canadian labour market was-until recently-considered of secondary importance and their labour market choices studied within a framework of temporary attachment to the labor force. Recent research, however, finds that a significant fraction of married immigrant women make labor supply decisions (and face barriers) similar to those of native-born married women. We show that this is the case in Canada as well, by estimating the progress of immigrant women over the 2000s. We use traditional measures of labour market attachment, such as participation, employment and wages, but also novel measures of labour market dynamics, such as transitions across labour market states. Differences in transition rates can reveal higher fragility of work for immigrant women, or reveal the extent to which immigrant women respond to family income shocks-the added worker effect. Results show that immigrant women are less likely to transition into employment-more likely to transition out of employment to either unemployment or inactivity-and more likely to respond to income shocks than the Canadian born. There is evidence of a gradual convergence with years spent in Canada to the outcomes of the Canadian born, which is much slower for immigrant women than immigrant men.

SSRN Electronic Journal

The Effect of Linguistic Proximity on the Occupational Assimilation of Immigrant Men in Canada * ... more The Effect of Linguistic Proximity on the Occupational Assimilation of Immigrant Men in Canada * This paper contributes to the analysis of the integration of immigrants in the Canadian labour market by focusing in two relatively new dimensions. We combine the large samples of the restricted version of the Canadian Census (1991-2006) with both a new measure of linguistic proximity of the immigrant's mother tongue to that of the destination country, and with information of the occupational skills embodied in the jobs immigrants hold. This allows us to assess the role that language plays in the labour market performance of immigrants and to better study their career progression relative to the native born. Weekly wage differences between immigrants and the native born are driven mostly by penalties associated with immigrants' lower returns to social skills, but not to analytical or manual skills. Interestingly, low linguistic proximity between origin and destination language imposes larger wage penalties to the university-educated, and significantly affects the status of the jobs they hold. The influence of linguistic proximity on the skill content of jobs immigrants hold over time also varies by the educational level of the migrant. We also show that immigrants settling in Quebec and whose mother tongue is close to French have similar or better labour market outcomes (relative to native-born residents in Quebec) than immigrants with close linguistic proximity to English settling outside Quebec (relative to native born residents in the rest of Canada). However, since wages in Quebec are lower than elsewhere, immigrants in Quebec earn less in absolute terms than those residing elsewhere.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2011

Age at Migration, Language and Fertility Patterns among Migrants to Canada * This paper explores ... more Age at Migration, Language and Fertility Patterns among Migrants to Canada * This paper explores the fertility decisions of Canadian immigrants using a 20 percent sample of the Canadian Census of Population for the years 1991 through 2006. We focus on those individuals that migrated as children and on their age at arrival to assess their process of assimilation in terms of fertility. Our analysis does not show any sharp discontinuity in fertility by age at migration as sometimes observed on education or labor market outcomes. Instead, there is an inverted U shape relationship between age of migration and immigrant fertility, with those migrating in their late teens having the highest fertility rates when compared to natives. This pattern appears among migrants from all origins-although their fertility levels differ. Results suggests that language acquisition is not a key mechanism through which age at immigration affects fertility-fertility behavior of immigrants with an official mother tongue also differs from that of natives. Rather fertility assimilation seems to be associated with education decisions. College graduates arriving to Canada anytime before adulthood behave as their native peers.

We consider the job progression of immigrant women in five European countries: France, Italy, Spa... more We consider the job progression of immigrant women in five European countries: France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK. We complement data from the European Labour Force Survey (20052015), with information about the skills contained in the jobs held by women, using data from the O*Net. In particular, we focus on analytical and strength skills in immigrant ́s jobs and compare them to those required by jobs held by similar native women. Even though immigrants experience upon arrival a gap in participation relative to the native born, they gradually increase participation during the first ten years spent in the country (approximately, 1% per year in Spain, Italy and the UK, and 2% and 4 % per year in France and Sweden respectively). Our results reveal significant differences across countries of origin as well as differences within countries over the period of analysis. Recent immigrant women show relatively large gaps in the analytical skill content of the jobs they held relative to na...

This study investigates the role of family structure on cognitive outcomes of children. Using the... more This study investigates the role of family structure on cognitive outcomes of children. Using the rich panel data information from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY), collected on children and their families biennially since 1994, we investigate the association between a child's math & reading performance and family structure and changes in family structure. We find that children who stay-in or move-to non-intact families have lower reading scores than those who stay in intact families. Although initial findings indicate that family structure appears to have overall little effect on children's math performance, analysis by gender reveals that girls' performance appears to be more affected than boys' by their parents' divorce/remarriage or the presence of step-family members. Moreover, analysis by heritage reveals that family structure affects the math performance of children of French heritage differently from those of other Canadian h...

The question of wage differentials by firm size has been studied for several decades with no comm... more The question of wage differentials by firm size has been studied for several decades with no commonly accepted explanations for why large firms pay more. In this paper, we reexamine the relationship between firm-size and wage outcomes by estimating the returns to unmeasured ability between large and small firms. Our empirical methodology, based on non linear instrumental variable estimations, allows us to directly estimate the returns to unmeasured ability by firm size and therefore to test the two main theories of wage determination proposed to explain the relationship between firm size and wages, namely ability sorting and job screening. We use data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) which provides longitudinal information on workers and firms characteristics including establishment and firm size. We find significant differences in the returns to unmeasured ability across firm size. In particular, we find that the returns to unmeasured ability seem to follow a no...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015

Journal of Labor Economics, 2019

We examine data from Australia, Canada, and the U.S. to inform the potential for immigrant screen... more We examine data from Australia, Canada, and the U.S. to inform the potential for immigrant screening policies to influence the labour market performance of skilled immigrants. Our estimates point to improvements in employment rates and weekly earnings of male university-educated immigrants in all three countries concomitant with policy reforms. Nonetheless, the gains are modest in comparison to a substantial and persistent performance advantage of U.S. skilled immigrants. Given that there is increasingly little to distinguish the skilled immigration policies of these countries, we interpret the U.S. advantage as primarily reflecting the relative positive selectivity of U.S. immigrants.

ILR Review, 2012

Tight labor markets driven by resource booms could increase the opportunity cost of schooling and... more Tight labor markets driven by resource booms could increase the opportunity cost of schooling and crowd out human capital formation. For oil-producing economies such as the Province of Alberta, the OPEC oil shocks during the period from 1973 to 1981 may have had an adverse long-term effect on the productivity of the labor force if the oil boom resulted in workers reducing their ultimate investment in human capital rather than merely altering the timing of schooling. The authors analyze the effect of this decade-long oil boom on the long-term human capital investments and productivity for Alberta birth cohorts that were of normal schooling ages before, during, and after the oil boom. Their findings suggest that resource booms may change the timing of schooling but they do not reduce the total accumulation of human capital.

Labour Economics, 2016

We use the confidential files of the 1991-2006 Canadian Census, combined with information from O*... more We use the confidential files of the 1991-2006 Canadian Census, combined with information from O*NET on the skill requirements of jobs, to explore whether immigrant women behave as secondary workers, remaining marginally attached to the labour market and experiencing little career progression over time. Our results show that the current labour market patterns of female immigrants to Canada do not fit this profile, as previous studies found, but rather conform to patterns recently exhibited by married native women elsewhere, with rising participation and wage progression. At best, only relatively uneducated immigrant women in unskilled occupations may fit the profile of secondary workers, with slow skill mobility and low-status job-traps. Educated immigrant women, on the other hand, experience skill assimilation over time: a reduction in physical strength and an increase in analytical skills required in their jobs relative to those of natives.

Clssrn Working Papers, 2009

We use data from the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey (1999-2002) to assess the take-up of ... more We use data from the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey (1999-2002) to assess the take-up of family-friendly benefits that are provided by employers. We distinguish between availability and actual use of benefits to account for worker selection into firms according to benefit availability. We find that selection is important for understanding the takeup of family-friendly benefits, although it does not differ much between genders. We also find that the provision of these benefits helps workers relatively little to manage the work-family conflict and benefits are often unavailable to those who need them most. Our findings suggest that the market fails to help employees balance their family-work conflict.

Journal of Human Resources, 2006

Canada owes the success of its statistical system to a long-standing partnership between Statisti... more Canada owes the success of its statistical system to a long-standing partnership between Statistics Canada, the citizens of Canada, its businesses, governments and other institutions. Accurate and timely statistical information could not be produced without their continued cooperation and goodwill.

Reforming Severance Pay, 2011

Unemployment Insurance Savings Accounts in Latin America: Overview and Assessment * The unemploym... more Unemployment Insurance Savings Accounts in Latin America: Overview and Assessment * The unemployment protection systems that exist in most Latin American economies are generally considered inadequate in terms of providing insurance to workers. They may also encourage stratified labor markets and impose barriers to the employee's mobility and the firm's adjustment to changing labor market conditions. In addition, some of these systems involve high administrative and monitoring costs and may create additional adverse effects that induce higher unemployment rates and longer duration of unemployment and promote informal labor markets. Recently, research effort and policy interest has turned to Unemployment Insurance Savings Accounts (UISAs) as an alternative to traditional systems of unemployment insurance. UISAs are schemes of individual mandatory savings. Therefore, they smooth income over an individual's life cycle rather than pooling unemployment risk over the total working population at a point in time. This form of unemployment insurance diminishes the moral hazard problems associated with traditional insurance methods. However, it presents problems of its own. First, it is questionable that these systems provide adequate protection against unemployment risk. Additionally, their effects on the promotion of informal labor markets and their administrative costs are yet to be determined. Finally, the effectiveness as a form of unemployment insurance depends critically upon the performance and credibility of the financial institutions managing the funds. This paper examines the experience of Latin American countries that use UISAs, with the hope of highlighting the problems of the system and identifying areas for future theoretical and empirical work. The overall effect of UISAs depends on a vast array of specific country characteristics and program parameters. The way the system is implemented, existing labor regulation, the extent of the informal economy and the scope for collusive behavior greatly influence the success of these programs. This calls for a more extensive research effort in the area.

International Migration Review, 2014

Canada's immigration system is currently undergoing significant change driven by several goal... more Canada's immigration system is currently undergoing significant change driven by several goals that include (1) a desire to improve the economic outcomes of entering immigrants; (2) an attempt to better respond to short-term regional labor market shortages often associated with commodity booms, and (3) a desire to shift immigration away from the three largest cities to other regions of the country. These goals reflect the implementation of new immigration programs in the 2000s. The paper discusses the recent changes to Canadian immigration policy, examines preliminary evaluations of the new programs and discusses potential future issues emanating from the changes.

We investigate the returns to postsecondary education relaxing the standard assumption that it pr... more We investigate the returns to postsecondary education relaxing the standard assumption that it proceeds in a continuous manner. Using a unique survey that collects information on a representative cohort of graduates, we are able to estimate the effects of delaying school among successful graduates abstracting from specific macroeconomic conditions at the time of graduation. Our results show that graduates that delayed their education receive a premium relative to graduates that did not, even after considering other factors such as experience or labour market connections. These estimates are robust to the possibility of selection in the decision to return to school.

ILR Review, 2008

The authors analyze how firms of different sizes reward measured skills and unmeasured ability. T... more The authors analyze how firms of different sizes reward measured skills and unmeasured ability. The empirical methodology, based on nonlinear instrumental variable estimation, permits direct estimation of the returns to unmeasured ability by firm size. An analysis of panel data from the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics for two periods, 1993–1998 and 1996–2001, reveals statistically significant differences between firms of different sizes. In particular, returns to unmeasured ability are higher in medium-sized firms than in either small firms or large firms. The authors find that the firm-size wage gap and the differential in returns to unmeasured ability between small and medium-sized firms is mainly explained by ability sorting. The fact that larger firms reward ability less than medium-sized firms is consistent with an explanation based on monitoring costs. When firms become “too large,” monitoring costs may prevent them from rewarding ability directly through wages.

Handbook of the Economics of International Migration, 2015

This is a draft chapter for B. R. Chiswick and P. W. Miller (eds.) Handbook on the Economics of I... more This is a draft chapter for B. R. Chiswick and P. W. Miller (eds.) Handbook on the Economics of International Migration. It discusses some of the data and methodological challenges to estimating trends in family formation and union dissolution as well as fertility among immigrants, and examines the evidence collected from the main studies in the area. The literature on immigrant family formation is diverse but perhaps the key findings highlighted in this chapter are that outcomes depend greatly on the age at migration and on the cultural norms immigrants bring with them and their distance to those of the host country. With regard to marriage we focus on the determinants of intermarriage, the stability of these unions, and the timing of union formation. The last section of the chapter reviews, among other things, a set of mechanisms that may explain the fertility behavior of first generation immigrants; namely, selection, disruption and adaptation. The section ends with a focus on the second generation.

IZA World of Labor, 2014

Married women moving to major immigrant-receiving countries tend to assimilate into the labor mar... more Married women moving to major immigrant-receiving countries tend to assimilate into the labor market following patterns similar to those for immigrant men: employment and wages grow along with years in the country. Studies of skill progression also find mobility toward higher status jobs. While these findings seem to dispel the notion that immigrant women behave like secondary workers, studies find that highly educated immigrants remain disproportionally in low-skill occupations. Policies to integrate immigrant women in the labor market, by providing support in finding initial jobs, could improve the economic assimilation of immigrant families. Cons The large presence of educated immigrant women in low-skill occupations suggests significant obstacles at entry. Highly educated immigrant women do not experience wage or analytical skill parity with comparable native-born women. Erroneous perceptions of immigrant women as secondary workers slows their integration into the labor market. A comprehensive study of labor market outcomes of immigrant women is impeded by data limitations on household composition and lack of data on the same women over time (panel data). Are married immigrant women secondary workers? Patterns of labor market assimilation for married immigrant women are similar to those for men

Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2014

Skilled immigrants have been identified as a key source of labour supply for addressing the expec... more Skilled immigrants have been identified as a key source of labour supply for addressing the expected labour market shortages in Canada arising from an aging population and strong economic growth. The integration of immigrants into the workforce often requires that they have the necessary accreditation to work at their chosen occupation. However, credential recognition has proven to be a significant labour market barrier for skilled immigrants. We estimate the social rate of return of investing in immigrant credentials by analyzing the results of the the Immigrant Access Fund (IAF), an institution providing small loans on a not for profit basis to assist Alberta immigrants in acquiring the Canadian accreditation and training they need to work their field of expertise. Under very conservative assumptions, our assessment of the average social return to the IAF loan program demonstrates that this is a very high return social program with annual real rates of return of 33% or more. These returns are even higher for higher earning occupations such as health and engineering.