GDP per capita and immigration

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Hmmmm....

The country with one of the highest immigration rates in the G7, is also the country with the highest GDP per capita growth in the G7.



Interesting....

Generali

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Hmmmm....

The country with one of the highest immigration rates in the G7, is also the country with the highest GDP per capita growth in the G7.



Interesting....

Also the country with the least snow, the largest consumer of alcohol per capita and the smallest land area.

Correlation =/= causation.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

LOL

Still, if immigration was making us all poorer on average, as so many of the kippers et al claim, then that correlation shouldn't be there.

But TBF you may have a point with the booze consumption per capita, certainly adds a lot to Scottish GDP. :beer:

Generali

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

LOL

Still, if immigration was making us all poorer on average, as so many of the kippers et al claim, then that correlation shouldn't be there.

But TBF you may have a point with the booze consumption per capita, certainly adds a lot to Scottish GDP. :beer:

There are thousands of studies that have been done on the economic impact of immigration, almost all of which show a positive impact:

http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&q=the+economic+impact+of+immigration&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C5

Pretty much all of the arguments I've seen against immigration seem to based on the idea that the economy is fixed in size: in such a case, immigration would be a terrible idea as clearly it would reduce the size of the pie per person, indeed encouraging mass emigration would be the best policy to follow as splitting the pie between fewer people would give each person more.

However, to use a technical phrase, this is @r5e donuttery of the highest order. The fact of a person moving to another country has many effects on demand for as well as supply of labour. An immigrant needs haircuts, health care, a car, housing, food, utilities etc as much as any indigenous person.

the_flying_pig

(1) of the countries in that list the UK's net immigration rate is middling - link

(2) even if this wasn't the case, seriously, behave, the use of these data in this way is worse than a nonsense.

Generali

the_flying_pig wrote: »

(1) of the countries in that list the UK's net immigration rate is middling - link

(2) even if this wasn't the case, seriously, behave, the use of these data in this way is worse than a nonsense.

The UK is in the Top 4 of 7.

CLAPTON

I guess it could prove that without immigration our GDP per capita would have been much higher
or it could prove nothing atall

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Generali wrote: »

There are thousands of studies that have been done on the economic impact of immigration, almost all of which show a positive impact:.

Yes of course, there's no doubt that the economic impacts of immigration, and in particular European immigration, are positive.... yet that doesn't stop the usual suspects jumping up and down about it.

Bantex_2

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Yes of course, there's no doubt that the economic impacts of immigration, and in particular European immigration, are positive.... yet that doesn't stop the usual suspects jumping up and down about it.

There are winners and losers though. If you happen to be one of the latter your opinion may be influenced by it.

michaels

Isn't the arguement not that immigration makes us better off on average but about what it does for income distributon and pressure on immediate infrastucture and social resources which do not adjust quickly enough?

CLAPTON

gdp is a very imperfect measure of value as every single economic text book tells us.


a 1 hour traffic jam adds to GDP (all the extra fuel consumed) but many wouldn't say we were actually richer for it.


a long delay seeing a doctor is neutral GDP wise and many would disagree in terms of quality of life (or even life itself).