Seminar by Ronit Mukherji (Ashoka University)

This paper illustrates the role of low-skilled immigrants’ location choice as a channel through which local labour markets adjust to automation. We employ a shiftshare instrumental variable approach to demonstrate that low-skilled immigrants are more mobile than low-skilled native born in response to robot exposure. Low-skilled immigrants are less likely to enter and more likely to exit from highly robot-exposed regions. Immigrants’ location decisions attenuate wage losses due to robot exposure for low-skilled natives. Low-skilled native workers experience a 0.07 percentage point smaller decline in wages comparing commuting zones at the 50th and 25th percentiles of low-skilled immigrant shares.