Modelling the Economic Impacts of Migration and Population Growth

The paper uses MONASH, a dynamic computable general equilibrium model, to investigate the impact on the Australian economy of a 50 per cent increase in the skilled migrant intake over the period 2005-2025. The primary purpose of the modelling it to identify how the labour market might absorb an increase in the number of skilled visa entrants. To that end, the modelling recognises labour supply by 67 types of skill (defined as an education field classified by an education level) and 81 occupations. We find that, even with the increase in immigration heavily weighted towards skilled visa entrants, the main effect of the policy is to increase the scale of the economy. The main compositional effects are to shift economic activity towards the construction sector and sectors supplying material inputs to construction activity, raise the relative wages of workers that supply labour used intensively in construction and related sectors, reduce the relative wages of skilled labour, and increase returns to capital relative to labour.