University of New Hampshire
McNair Scholar, 2015
Major: Business Administration
Mentor: Dr. Karen Conway and Dr. Bruce Elmslie, Department of Economics
Research Title: Investigating the Economic Impact of Immigration on Output-Mix: The Case of Italy
Abstract:
As of 2013, more than 230 million people live outside their countries of birth. Recently, the debate about the economic effects of immigration had gain momentum particularly in politics and the media. Research done on this subject, has primarily been conducted in regard to the immigration’s effects on wage and unemployment rate, while relatively little research has focused on the output-mix effects. To add more of the latter type of research to the current migration related literature, the present study proposes to examine whether immigration inflows altered Italy’s regional output mixes as predicted by the Rybczynski Theorem. Italy is one of the countries that has not been studied in regards to the change in industry output mix before. The general hypothesis is that given an influx of low-skilled immigrants, Italy will shift its output patterns, by decreasing its production of capital intensive goods, and increasing its activity in the service sector. This hypothesis will be examined both theoretically and empirically. Ultimately, the results obtained from this research will not only add to the existing migration related literature, but might also influence future immigration policies.
