Labor

Canada and the United States are two of the largest immigrant destinations in the world. For decades, the two countries have received large inflows of immigrants from many common sending nations while pursuing markedly different policies regarding the admission and integration of immigrants. This project examines education and earnings trajectories of immigrants and their descendants in both countries, in light of these notable regulatory differences marking labor market and social policies.

This research will contribute to our understanding of how firms and workers allocate authority, and how this can be organized to increase productivity and reduce conflict. These questions go back to Ronald Coase and Herbert Simon, as well as the institutionalist school of labor economics. Outside of economics, our results will relate to the large literature in labor and legal history, sociology, and American political development that has concerned itself with the role of the law in the labor contract.