Valeria Pasco Garfias, BSc (Hons) in Economics, University of Manchester
Valeria’s project examined the link between immigration from European Union (EU) counties and productivity in the UK. Since a significant fraction of immigration into the UK has comes from EU countries; understanding the impact of EU migration on economic outcomes has important implications for policy design. This includes the newly proposed points-based immigration system.
Valeria’s research exploited differences in nigeria rcs data exposure to EU migration across industry groupings between 2000-2016, a period which includes the 2004 EU enlargement. Valeria used the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to compute industry level figures including the share of EU and non-EU born migrants. This new data was then combined with ONS statistics on Multi-Factor Productivity (MFP), to model the relationship between EU immigration and productivity.
Valeria found that EU immigration into specific industry groupings after 2004 had a positive impact on UK productivity, especially in industries more dependent on EU migrant labour. These finding suggest that the end of free movement of labour, which has characterized EU migration into the UK for more than 25 years, could generate pressures in sectors that are heavily dependent on it.