Before the fictional musical Borjas-Caplan immigration debate of 2024, there was the non-fictional non-musical Borjas-Caplan immigration debate of 2019. It was an unusual format: Both of us had the floor for over hour each. Borjas:Me:If you pay close attention to my opponent’s presentation, you’ll discover that he’s quite unlike every other critic of immigration. In…
The Borjas-Caplan Immigration Debate
The Borjas-Caplan Immigration Debate
20 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, population economics Tags: economics of immigration
Slides Against Sohrab Ahmari
25 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality Tags: economics of immigration
Opening statements at my Steamboat Institute debate on open borders versus Sohrab Ahmari were so brief that I failed to even finish my slideshow. Since the audience didn’t get to see the whole thing, I’m sharing it here. Remember: This is the only immigration debate I’ve ever done where the resolution was explicitly about “benefit…
Slides Against Sohrab Ahmari
Reflections on United Arab Emirates
23 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, energy economics, growth miracles, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, property rights, Public Choice Tags: Dubai, economics of immigration
On my way to India, I connected through Abu Dhabi, capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). During my one-day layover, I toured not only Abu Dhabi, but its more famous sister-city, Dubai. Here are my main thoughts.In Dubai, these are not empty words.Per-capita, UAE is the most amazing country I’ve ever seen. With…
Reflections on United Arab Emirates
New Zealand fact of the day
19 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in international economics, labour economics, labour supply, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand Tags: economics of immigration
In the year to June, 80,200 New Zealand citizens moved abroad, almost double the numbers prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, just 24,900 returned, according to Stats NZ — the country’s official data agency. The net loss of 55,300 citizens (which follows a net loss of 56,500 in the year to April) smashed the previous record […]
New Zealand fact of the day
NZ now has an asylum problem
12 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in Economics of international refugee law, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: economics of immigration
Stuff reports: The number of people claiming refugee status in New Zealand has exploded in the past two years, statistics released by Immigration New Zealandshow. In the 11 months to 31 May 2024, a total of 2220 people claimed refugee status in New Zealand. Half of these asylum seekers – 1108 people – were from a […]
NZ now has an asylum problem
Don’t Mess with Texas: Fifth Circuit Rules Against the Biden Administration in Buoy Dispute on Southern Border
02 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, defence economics, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice Tags: 2024 presidential election, economics of immigration
Texas won a big victory in the United States Court of Appeals in the long struggle over floating buoy barriers in the Rio Grande River to help block unlawful migration. In United States v. Abbott, the court ruled 11-7 in an en banc decision against the Biden Administration over the barrier. It is an interesting decision […]
Don’t Mess with Texas: Fifth Circuit Rules Against the Biden Administration in Buoy Dispute on Southern Border
Trump’s Backdoor to Open Borders
30 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, economics of immigration
Donald Trump recently endorsed a glorious-on-net immigration proposal: giving a green card to every foreigner who graduates from a U.S. university. I was stunned when I read the fine print: Let me just tell you that it’s so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, from the greater schools and lesser schools that are…
Trump’s Backdoor to Open Borders
Updated estimates on immigration and wages
30 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, econometerics, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA Tags: economics of immigration
In this article we revive, extend and improve the approach used in a series of influential papers written in the 2000s to estimate how changes in the supply of immigrant workers affected natives’ wages in the US. We begin by extending the analysis to include the more recent years 2000-2022. Additionally, we introduce three important […]
Updated estimates on immigration and wages
OneNews blames immigration to NZ for emigration (of young Kiwis out of NZ). Maybe they’re leaving because our Media has depressed them?
20 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, population economics Tags: economics of immigration
If a Blogger accused immigrants of nicking houses & jobs off young native NZ’ers, causing them to leave the country, then we’d likely be prosecuted under anti-freedom of speech legislation. But seems our State-owned broadcaster, OneNews, can get away with it. After all, like the Reserve Bank, TVNZ can do what it wants. Its above…
OneNews blames immigration to NZ for emigration (of young Kiwis out of NZ). Maybe they’re leaving because our Media has depressed them?
Netherlands government about to be formed, per reports
16 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, politics Tags: economics of immigration, The Netherlands
It is being reported (e.g., Politico, FT) that a coalition government is soon to be announced for the Netherlands, which a general election in late November. The government would consist of the following parties, with their seats noted: The far-right Freedom Party (PVV, 37), led by Geert Wilders, the center-right VVD (24), the Christian democratic/anti-establishment […]
Netherlands government about to be formed, per reports
The Assassination of Pim Fortuyn.
08 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: economics of immigration, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left, The Netherlands
I have often made the point that there is basically no difference between the far left and the far right, If there ever was a clearer indication of that it was Pim Fortuyn, initially a Marxist and communist, he later did a complete U turn. Although I don’t consider extreme right, he was leaning towards […]
The Assassination of Pim Fortuyn.
Australia must be welcoming of migrants more than most
01 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - Australia, population economics Tags: Australia, economics of immigration
Three Snapshots of Where US Population is Headed
29 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, environmental economics, labour economics, labour supply, population economics Tags: ageing society, economics of fertility, economics of immigration, population bust
The Congressional Budget Office has published The Demographic Outlook: 2024 to 2054 (January 2024), which offers some recent history and projections of how the US population is evolving. Here are three snapshots: The Role of Immigration in Total US Population Growth The black line shows projected US population growth since 2004, with firm data up…
Three Snapshots of Where US Population is Headed
Open Borders and Closed Courts: How the Supreme Court Laid the Seeds for the Immigration Crisis
06 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA Tags: constitutional law, economics of immigration
Below is my column in The Hill on the worsening situation at the Southern border and how the Supreme Court laid the seeds for this crisis over a decade ago. The courts have left few options for either the states or Congress in compelling the enforcement of federal law. Here is the column:
Open Borders and Closed Courts: How the Supreme Court Laid the Seeds for the Immigration Crisis
Law-Abiding Immigrants
08 Sep 2023 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of crime, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice Tags: economics of immigration, law and order
The subtitle is The Incarceration Gap Between Immigrants and the U.S.-Born, 1850–2020, and the authors are Ran Abramitzky, Leah Boustan, Elisa Jácome, Santiago Pérez, and Juan David Torres. Here is the to-the-point abstract: Combining full-count Census data with Census/ACS samples, the researchers provide the first nationally representative long-run series (1870–2020) of incarceration rates for immigrants […]
Law-Abiding Immigrants
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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