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It's a dead link, but judging by your posting the article doesn't get into specifics so it's useless. Is that the ONLY study?
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http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=...r=&btnG=Search
Try that or try google scholar then type in: "Illegal Immigration and Resource Allocation"
I just reported the findings. The methodology and data sources were in the study. You can take a look into it to see the details of it.
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Do you have even a shred of proof that the $1600 was passed on to the consumer instead of being pocketed by the builder? I'd like to see that please.
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The construction industry is a competitive market, which has many sellers selling identical product. Therefore, every firm in the industry is a price-taker not a price-maker.
From that information, I can infer that any reduction in the input costs overall that most firms can get access to (in this case cheap labor source) will lead to the reduction of price.
The reason why someone does not need data to know this is because this is an established principle in microeconomics that has been proven with empirical evidence and has become orthodoxy. I am not to say that someone that is right today will always be right tomorrow, but I am saying that this is a proven fact with our current knowledge - economists are, within the realm of practical possibility of today, pretty certain until new research proves otherwise. It is an implicit assumption. To require data of every case is intellectually paralyzing just like to require the data of the every dimension of the object every time to demonstrate the validity of gravity.
To put it in a different way, showing that why would firm behave that way, we can use the logic Adam Smith succinctly captured:
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own neccessities but of their advantages."
Think about this, if you are a firm in the construction industry; you save $1,600 because you get access to this pool of cheap labor. However, the firms next to you get similar access to the same source of cheap labor, meaning he save roughly $1,600 as well. In order to compete for the same pool of consumers, your competitors will charge a lower price, forcing you to charge a lower price until it reach the market equilibrium where no one can charge a lower price and make a profit.
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Do you have a study that proves that the use of cheap labor domestically actually lowers consumer prices and how much? And do those savings outweigh the overall increase in the taxes due to the illegal labor being here? I love to read, so feel I'd like you to back up your statements with data, numbers, you know.
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Again, if there is an increase of labor, what will happen is that the supply curve will shift down, lowering wages. As wages are lowered, so is the production cost. As the production cost is lowered, again price will reduce as the result. This is again a principle of macroeconomics, an implicit assumption that economists can infer from without the backing of due to established empirical evidence. It will change until new research proves otherwise.
As for the costs and benefits of illegal labor, you can go back to the study above. Economics is science (even though it is still very young and there are many things economists don't know), a good study is as good as many studies.
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I have a study for you. It was given as Testimony before The Subcommittee on Immigration, Committee on the Judiciary, United States House of Representatives, May 17, 2007. I want to see something factual, backed up by data, like this report showing in dollars and cent the benefit you speak of.
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The study again only captures the explicit cost of immigration which is the tax revenue vs. social service payment, this is referred as accountant cost. It does not take into account the implicit costs and benefits of illegal immigrants, factors such as reduction in price due to an increase in labor, the reallocation of resources (capital and human capital), an economic cost of illegal immigrants etc
The welfare of a nation is not determined by the positive balance sheet of the government, but by productivity.