The increasing internationalization of the U.S. labor market has had important effects on the wage structure. Immigration has probably increased wage inequality because recent immigrant waves tend to be less skilled than earlier waves. Growing trade deficits in durable goods have also increased...

Conventional wisdom maintains that immigrants take out of an economy more than they put in. Conventional wisdom, in this case, may not be so wise.

I present a simple model of migration in which the net migration rate into a state depends on the expected present value of labor market conditions and amenities. I show that though this is a common model, existing empirical estimates do not separately identify the underlying parameters. The...