Essays on Immigrant Women’s Labor Supply, Time Use and the Impact of E-Verify Policy

Abstract

The three essays in this dissertation mainly focus on immigrant women’s labor supply behaviors, time allocation with children and the impact of E-Verify policy on immigrants’ home ownership. Asian immigrants have grown as a share of the US population during the past decade and are expected to be the nation’s largest immigrant group in 2055. Asian immigrants are not just adding numbers in the population, but also affecting labor market, raising and educating the next generation, and making a sizable contribution to housing market. In the first essay, using the data from the American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year estimates from 2006 to 2011, Asian immigrant women’s labor supply behaviors are examined by comparing them with other immigrant women and native women’s labor supply behaviors and investigating the possible determinants of Asian immigrants’ labor supply behaviors. The results show that native non-Asian women having children under age five in the household work less hours than native Asian women and Asian first-generation immigrant women who have children under age five. Moreover, having more than two adults (e.g. grandparents) rather than themselves or their spouse, both native Asian women and Asian first-generation immigrant women spend more time in work market than native non-Asian women. It means that extra adults in the household share in the division of labor in the family so that native Asian women and Asian first-generation immigrant women can focus more on the work outside of the home rather than unpaid housework. Also, compared to native non-Asian women and native Asian women, Asian first-generation immigrant women have lower employment rates and are less responsive to hourly wage and spouses’ hourly wages. It is also observed that the country of origin has effects on immigrants’ labor supply behaviors. Married women from male-dominated societies work fewer hours than other Asian immigrant women. In the second essay, the 2005-2011 American Time Use Survey (ATUS) is used to analyze immigrant women’s time allocation with their children, which is also linked to data files from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to offer more information about each individual. The results indicate that working immigrant women spend more time on educational child care than working native women; and highly educated women are spending more hours on educational child care. Both working and non-working immigrant women spent less time on leisure than native women. The last essay uses data from the American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year estimates during the period 2004-2015 to examine whether E-Verify mandates have an impact on immigrants’ housing decisions in the states that adopted the E-Verify mandates, compared to those without E-Verify mandates. A difference-in-differences methodology (DID) is used to analyze the data. E-Verify mandates are used to help employers verify the employment eligibility of newly hired employees and reduce the unauthorized immigrant workers in the United States. While E-Verify mandates affect unauthorized immigrant workers’ employment, they also have significantly negative impacts on all immigrants’ employment and home ownership. Immigrants living in the states that adopted E-Verify mandates are less likely to own homes or purchase houses there.