Redistributive policies and migration

U.S. immigration data suggest that the education (or skill) level of new immigrants depend on the immigrant's country of origin. In my thesis, I argue that differences in redistributive policies (i.e., the progressiveness of income taxes) between the U.S. and Mexico affect the flow and composition of U.S. immigrants.; The first chapter consists of an empirical examination of the trends in the skill composition of new legal U.S. immigrants. For most years between 1972 and 1996, I find that new legal U.S. immigrants worked in occupations that required more education than the average educational attainment of the U.S. population. Moreover, immigrant quality improved during this period: immigrants who entered the U.S. in the 1990's were slightly more educated than those who entered in the 1970's and 1980's. However, the educational attainment of U.S. immigrants was more volatile than the educational attainment of the U.S. population.; In the second chapter, I use an open economy general equilibrium model to analyze migration between the U.S. and Mexico. Unskilled and skilled workers choose the country in which to supply their labor. The results of the quantitative analysis support the claim that the observed redistributive policies affect U.S.-Mexico migration patterns (both the number of migrants and their skill levels). The model predicts a significant inflow of unskilled Mexicans into the U.S.; it also delivers welfare implications in favor of migration.; The final chapter extends the model from the second chapter to more closely depict the dynamic aspects of migration. Specifically, I incorporate human capital and physical capital investment decisions in an overlapping generations framework. Production technology exhibits capital-skill complementarity, requiring physical capital, unskilled and skilled labor to produce output. Again, using the observed tax and transfer policies, the model predicts an inflow of unskilled Mexicans similar to what is observed in U.S. immigration data. Moreover, a reduction in the progressivity of U.S. income taxes or an increase in the progressivity of Mexican taxes curtails Mexican immigration into the U.S. My results suggest that differences in redistributive policies alone account for approximately 54% of total migrant flows between the U.S. and Mexico.