Honors Thesis Archive

AuthorJoshua Luke Durell
TitleThe Ohio Migrant Effect: An Introductory Analysis of the Impact of Immigration on Ohioan Income
DepartmentEconomics
AdvisorsDavid Wishart, Ruth Hoff, and Lawrence Gwinn
Year2018
HonorsUniversity Honors
Full TextView Thesis (885 KB)
AbstractThe perceived costs and benefits of immigration take front stage for many U.S. political and policy debates, in both the public and private spheres. Various Ohio lawmakers seek to decrease immigration levels into the United States, both documented and undocumented, primarily by aligning Ohio state law with Federal law.2 This raises the question: is there any measurable economic incentive to increase or decrease immigration levels in Ohio? One way to address this is to measure how immigration is correlated with income. If higher levels of immigration contribute to higher levels of income, increased immigration would be a beneficial policy, and vice versa. This study develops a model that quantifies the impact of immigration on incomes for native Ohioans. My study uses recent data from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) to develop and estimate an econometric model that suggests a more definitive answer to the question: "What effect does immigration have on per capita income in Ohio?" This study reports that across Ohio counties, a 1 percentage point increase in county immigrant population corresponds to a 0.0125 percent increase in county median income. The effect of immigration on county median income in Ohio suggested here is small but positive.

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