Papers in Regional Science
Volume 95, 2016, Pages S107-S126

Social capital and immigrants' labour market performance (Article)

Piracha M. , Tani M. , Vaira-Lucero M.
  • a School of Economics, Keynes College, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NP, United Kingdom
  • b School of Business, University of New South Wales CanberraACT, Australia
  • c Faculty of Business and Economics, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia

Abstract

This paper analyses the role of social capital on immigrants' labour market outcomes. We use principal component analysis (PCA) to build an index of social networks and explore its impact on the probability of getting a job and on wage levels using the Households Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) longitudinal survey data (2002-2010). We find a positive effect of social capital on migrants' employment outcomes and wages, especially for women. Distinguishing employment into blue and white-collar jobs, we find that social capital only affects the probability of getting a white-collar job. These results suggest that promoting opportunities to create social capital has a beneficial effect on migrants' integration in the host country. © 2016 Regional Science Association International.

Author Keywords

Australia Labour market immigrants HILDA survey Social capital

Index Keywords

wage social network immigrant social capital principal component analysis Australia labor market household income
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84896575526&doi=10.1111%2fpirs.12117&partnerID=40&md5=284f5d3d55c9cde19f03a51264b36dbe
DOI: 10.1111/pirs.12117
ISSN: 10568190
Cited by: 4
Original Language: English