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This paper explores the impact of the 2007 European Union enlargement on the consumption behaviour of immigrant households. Using data from a unique Italian survey and a difference-indifferences approach, we find that the enlargement induced a significant consumption increase for the immigrant households from new member states both in the short and in the medium run. This enlargement effect cannot be attributed to the mere legalization as it concerns both undocumented and documented immigrants, albeit through different channels. Detailed information on immigrants' legal status (undocumented/documented) and sector of employment (informal/formal) allows us to shed light on the exact mechanisms. Following the enlargement, previously undocumented immigrants experienced an increase in the labour income by moving from

Aggregate wages display little cyclicality compared with what a standard model would predict. Wage rigidities are an obvious candidate, but a recent strand of the literature has emphasized the need to take into account the growing importance of worker composition effects during downturns. With reference to the Italian case we document that firm composition effects also matter increasingly in explaining aggregate wage dynamics, i.e. aggregate wage growth has been raised by the increase in the employment weight of highwage firms. To the extent that this reallocation occurs towards more productive firms, the composition effects may also reflect an efficiency enhancing mechanism. We use a newly available dataset based on social security records covering the universe of Italian employers from 1990 to 2013 and employ a standard measure of allocative efficiency on wages paid across firms. We show that this measure has improved progressively since before the recent downturn, being aligned at the sectoral level with measures of productivity growth and market openness to competition. We then focus on the recent downturn and find that large firms were able to adjust wages more than small firms and that small firms instead adjusted employment to a larger extent. Finally, we document that the continued improvement in the measure of allocative efficiency over this period correlates positively with measures of economic activity (evolution of employment and value added) across sectors.

Abstract:This paper focuses on young adults living with their parents in the U.S. and studies from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent friends on the coresidence of young adults with thei peer effects in a static framework and employ an instrumental variable technique and effects in order to mitigate them. We then move to a dynamic leaving the parental home among peers. Our results indicate that there are statistically signi the nest-leaving behavior of young adults. of young adults with their parents. We address the challenges in the identifi ects in a static framework and employ an instrumental variable technique and control for state fi ects in order to mitigate them. We then move to a dynamic framework and exploit differences in the timing of peers. Our results indicate that there are statistically signi leaving behavior of young adults., living arrangements, leaving parental homeWe are grateful to Nezih Guner for his valuable advice and guidance. Many thanks to David Card,