Title: How did the Miami labor market absorb the Mariel immigrants?
Description: "Card's (1990)  well-known analysis of the Mariel boatlift concluded that this mass influx of  mostly less-skilled Cubans to Miami had little impact on the labor market  outcomes of the city's less-skilled workers.  This paper evaluates two  explanations for this.  First, consistent with an open-economy framework, this  paper asks whether after the boatlift, Miami increased its production of  unskilled-intensive manufactured goods, allowing it to "export" the impact of  the boatlift.  Second, this paper asks whether Miami adapted to the boatlift by  implementing new skill-complementary technologies more slowly than would have  otherwise been the case.  Using a confidential micro data version of the Annual  Surveys of Manufactures, I show that following the boatlift, Miami's relative  output of different manufacturing industries trended similary to other cities  with similar pre-boatlift trends in manufacturing mix.  The response of industry  mix to the boatlift therefore appears to be small.  Supporting the second type  of adjustment, utilization of Cuban labor by Miami's industries rose  proportionately to the supply increase generated by the boatlift.  In adition,  post-boatlift computer use at work was lower in Miami than in other cities wih  similar levels of computer-based employment before the event, even among  non-Hispanic workers in the same detailed cells defined by industry,  occupation, and education.  This suggests the boatlift induced Miami's  industries to employ more unskilled-intensive production technologies.  The  results suggest an explanation for why native wages are consistently found to  be insensitive to local immigration shocks: markets adapt production technology  to local factor supplies"--Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia web site.
Subjects: Mariel Boatlift, 1980, Refugees, Unskilled labor
Places: Florida, Miami