Empirical studies in labour and migration economics

This thesis consists of three empirical studies investigating topics in the fields of labour and migration economics, using a combination of administrative and survey data. The first study in labour economics seeks to answer the question whether international differences in earnings inequality between skilled and (relatively) unskilled workers can be explained by differences in the relative supply of and demand for skilled and unskilled workers across countries. Both the second and third studies are placed in the field of migration economics, dealing with the topical issue of refugee migration. Specifically, they investigate the social and attitudinal effects of the reception of refugees on host communities. The second study employs a case study of a town in rural Australia to examine how a large influx of refugees to the township has impacted social capital among the native residents. The third study broadens the context by using refugee centre data from all of the Netherlands over a number of years to link exposure to refugees to changes in natives’ attitudes to immigration. While the three studies differ (in parts) in the subfield, context and methodology of empirical microeconomics, a uniting factor is that they are motivated by important real-world problems, and that any conclusions drawn are based on the thorough analysis of a suitable dataset.