Title: Econometric search of undocumented workers in the USA

Authors: Yongseung Han; Eréndira Yareth Vargas López; Myeong Hwan Kim

Addresses: Department of Economics and Finance, University of North Georgia, 1201 Bishop Farms Pkwy., Watkinsville, GA 30677, USA ' Faculty of International Trade, University of Colima, 269 Elias Zamora Verduzco Ave., Manzanillo, Colima 28219, Mexico ' Department of Economics and Finance, Purdue University Fort Wayne, 2101 E. Coliseum Blvd., Fort Wayne, IN 46805, USA

Abstract: This study seeks to find where undocumented workers reside in the USA. By postulating that the US destination of an undocumented worker is affected by socio-economic factors, an equation is estimated using the standard panel-data methods. A static panel-data estimation (fixed-effects and random effects) does not reveal a meaningful relation between undocumented workers and other factors. The Arellano-Bond estimation, in which the previous level of undocumented workers are used as a proxy for a network, provides statistically significant relations at the 0.05 level; the number of undocumented workers in a state is determined by the state's socio-economic factors such as economic conditions (e.g., unemployment rate and household income) and social factors necessary to form a network (e.g., foreign-born population, Hispanic population, urban population, the number of households having limited English-speaking ability and the previous level of undocumented workers). Among these factors, the previous level of undocumented workers has the largest impact on the current level of undocumented workers.

Keywords: undocumented worker; illegal immigration; economic migration; real wage; unemployment rate; household income.

DOI: 10.1504/GBER.2021.114656

Global Business and Economics Review, 2021 Vol.24 No.3, pp.248 - 260

Received: 16 May 2020
Accepted: 31 Aug 2020
Published online: 29 Apr 2021 *

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