When education does not pay off

Journal title ECONOMIA E SOCIETÀ REGIONALE
Author/s Marco Tosi, Camilla Borgna, Milena Belloni
Publishing Year 2020 Issue 2020/1 Language Italian
Pages 18 P. 42-59 File size 313 KB
DOI 10.3280/ES2020-001003
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Immigrants’ inclusion model in the Italian labor market has been described as a "low unemployment, bad jobs" equilibrium. This article investigates immigrant/native gaps in earnings by analyzing a dataset which joins the ad hoc survey "Earnings and living conditions of foreign-born families" (2009) and the Istat IT-Silc (2009). In line with previous literature on occupational attainment, we find that the gap between natives and immigrants is largest among highly-educated workers. For this group, immigrant penalties remain significant after controlling for socio-demographic and job-related characteristics, also for those who obtained the formal recognition of their educational certificate. Recognition itself has a positive effect on earnings, but only for female workers. The finding that immigrant penalties persist even within occupations can be explained by discriminatory practices and/or adverse selection within the group of highly-educated immigrant workers, due to the structural characteristics of the Italian labor market.

Keywords: Immigration, Educational Credentials, Human Capital, Returns to Education, Labor Market

Jel codes: J31, J24, J61, F22

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Marco Tosi, Camilla Borgna, Milena Belloni, Quando lo studio non paga. Un’analisi sui differenziali salariali fra stranieri e italiani in "ECONOMIA E SOCIETÀ REGIONALE " 1/2020, pp 42-59, DOI: 10.3280/ES2020-001003