Economic Performance of Turkish Immigrant Men in the European Labour-Market: Evidence from Sweden

Abstract

This paper uses eleven waves of panel-data to analyse the earnings assimilation of first-generation Turkish immigrant men in Sweden. Employment-probabilities and earnings are estimated in a fixed-effects sample selection model in order to control for both individual effects and panel-selectivity, which arise due to missing earnings-information. Local unemployment rates are used as proxy for varying local market conditions in order to control for the bias caused by equal-period-effect assumption. The results indicate that the earnings of Turkish immigrant men converge to those of natives, but their probability of being employed does not. The assimilation response of Turkish immigrants differs considerably, depending on arrival-cohorts and educational levels.