Switzerland has experienced a substantial influx of immigrants over the 50 years since World War II, to the extent that it now has one of the highest share of foreigners in population among OECD countries. This paper analyses Switzerland’s experience of migration, centring on two main issues:...

Recent studies have shown that there are significant earnings differentials between immigrants and natives in Switzerland. The goal of this paper is to determine whether these differences can be attributed to diverging socio-economic endowments or to discrimination. We use the well-known...

The paper investigates the relative importance of trade and immigration for earnings and job mobility of male German workers. Using panel data, changes of workplace within a firm and between firms are separated from occupational changes. Various subgroups are investigated, differentiating...

A number of studies have established a positive effect of migrants' language proficiency on their productivity. It has been argued that these estimates are upward-biased because of the presence of unobserved heterogeneity. To obtain an accurate estimate of language effects is important since it...

This paper investigates the human capital investments of migrants whose duration in the host country is limited, either by contract or by their own choice. The first part of the paper develops a model, distinguishing between migrants who immigrate on a fixed contract, and migrants who choose...

Destination countries are progressively shifting towards selective immigration policies. These can eectively increase migrants' average education even if one allows for endogenous schooling decisions and education policies at origin. Still, more selective immigration policies reduce social...

This Paper shows that increasing product market competition can have a direct impact on the employment relationship and on wage inequality. I develop a simple model in which an increase in product market competition increases returns to skill through the effect of competition on the sensitivity...

This paper considers educational investment, wages and hours of market work in an imperfectly competitive labour market with heterogeneous workers and home production. It investigates the degree to which there might be both underemployment in the labour market and underinvestment in education. A...

We model educational investment and labor supply in a competitive economy with home and market production. Heterogeneous workers are assumed to have different productivities both at home and in the workplace. We show that there are increasing returns to education at the labor market...