Can Immigrants Insure Against Shocks as Well as the Native-Born?

24 Pages Posted: 8 Aug 2016

See all articles by Asad Islam

Asad Islam

Monash University

Steven Stillman

Free University of Bozen-Bolzano; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Christopher Worswick

Carleton University - Department of Economics

Abstract

The impact that an unforeseen event has on household welfare depends on the extent to which household members can take actions to mitigate the direct impact of the shock. In this paper, we use nine years of longitudinal data from the Household Income Labour Dynamics of Australia (HILDA) survey to examine the impact of job displacement and serious health problems on: individual labour supply and incomes, household incomes and food expenditure. We extend on the previous literature by examining whether mitigation strategies and their effectiveness differs for the native-born and immigrants. Immigrants make up nearly one-quarter of the Australian population and there are a number of reasons to suspect that they may be less able to mitigate adverse shocks than the native-born.

Keywords: job loss, income, consumption, labour supply, disability

JEL Classification: J65, I31, J15

Suggested Citation

Islam, Asadul and Stillman, Steven and Worswick, Christopher, Can Immigrants Insure Against Shocks as Well as the Native-Born?. IZA Discussion Paper No. 10063, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2819344 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2819344

Asadul Islam (Contact Author)

Monash University ( email )

Centre for Dev Economics and Sustainability (CDES)
Monash University
Caulfield East, Victoria
Australia
0403642405 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://users.monash.edu/~asaduli/

Steven Stillman

Free University of Bozen-Bolzano ( email )

Via Sernesi 1
39100 Bozen-Bolzano (BZ), Bozen 39100
Italy

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Christopher Worswick

Carleton University - Department of Economics ( email )

1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6
Canada
61-3-520-2600 (3776) (Phone)

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