Immigration and males’ earnings inequality in the regions of the United States

In this paper I investigate the impact of recent immigration on males’ earnings distributions in the major regions of the United States. I use six counterfactual scenarios to describe alternative regional skill distributions and wage structures for the population of natives and long-term immigrants in the absence of recent immigration. I find that immigration over the last three decades can account for a substantial portion of the variation in inequality across the regions. Recent immigration has contributed moderately to national growth in males’ earnings inequality, primarily by changing the composition of the population.