Economics of Immigration: Market-Based Approaches, Social Science, and Public Policy

by Benjamin Powell

Overview

The Economics of Immigration summarizes the best social science studying the actual impact of immigration, which is found to be at odds with popular fears. Greater flows of immigration have the potential to substantially increase world income and reduce extreme poverty. Existing evidence indicates that immigration slightly enhances the wealth of natives born in destination countries while doing little to harm the job prospects or reduce the wages of most of the native-born population. Similarly, although a matter of debate, most credible scholarly estimates of the net fiscal impact of current migration find only small positive or negative impacts. Importantly, current generations of immigrants do not appear to be assimilating more slowly than prior waves.

Although the range of debate on the consequences of immigration is much narrower in scholarly circles than in the general public, that does not mean that all social scientists agree on what a desirable immigration policy embodies. The second half of this book contains three chapters, each by a social scientist who is knowledgeable of the scholarship summarized in the first half of the book, which argue for very different policy immigration policies. One proposes to significantly cut current levels of immigration. Another suggests an auction market for immigration permits. The third proposes open borders. The final chapter surveys the policy opinions of other immigration experts and explores the factors that lead reasonable social scientists to disagree on matters of immigration policy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900190258794
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/21/2015
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Benjamin Powell is the Director of the Free Market Institute and Professor of Economics in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. He is a past President of the Association of Private Enterprise Education and a senior fellow with the Independent Institute. He has published several books and more than 50 scholarly articles, writes frequently in the popular press, and is interviewed regularly on television. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
Benjamin Powell

SOCIAL SCIENCE

2. The Economic Effects of International Labor Mobility
Peter T. Leeson and Zachary Gochenour

3. The Fiscal Impact of Immigration
Alex Nowrasteh

4. The Civic and Cultural Assimilation of Immigrants to the United States
Jacob Vigdor

5. Employment VISAs: An International Comparison
Alexandre Padilla and Nicolás Cachanosky

PUBLIC POLICY

6. Immigration Reform: A Modest Proposal
Richard K. Vedder

7. Immigration's Future: A Pathway to Legalization and Assimilation
Herbert London

8. A Radical Case for Open Borders
Bryan Caplan and Vipul Naik

9. Conclusion: Alternative Policy Perspectives
Benjamin Powell

Editorial Reviews

"Benjamin Powell has put together an academic and intellectual tour de force by bringing together some of the most accomplished thinkers on the critical issue of immigration in order to debunk some of the fallacies that obfuscate the current debate and make the pursuit of reasonable policies so difficult today."

— Alvaro Vargas Llosa is a Senior Fellow of The Center on Global Prosperity at the Independent Institute and author of author of Global Crossings: Immigration, Civilization, and America

"The Economics of Immigration carefully and objectively summarizes what we know about immigration and then challenges us with bold new perspectives on immigration policy. This is an excellent collection and a must-have for anyone interested the movement of people around the world."

— Alex Tabarrok, Director of the Center for Study of Public Choice and Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University

"The Economics of Immigration is two different books, both of them essential. The first half is a rigorous, hardheaded overview of the best evidence we have on the economic and fiscal effects of immigration. It takes research seriously, but is written in terms anyone can understand. The second half is a rich policy debate, giving fair hearing to sharply opposed views and innovative proposals. It's an adult conversation about a tough issue, mercifully free of partisan flim flam. The world needed a book like this and Powell provided it."

— Michael Clemens, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development, where he leads the migration and development initiative

"A nuanced, serious-minded effort to examine the facts behind a complex and contentious social issue. The Economics of Immigration is especially recommended for college and public library Economics Studies shelves."

— James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher