Next we examine the effect of immigration on labor supply, measured by (i) hours
worked during the previous week by private employees, and (ii) the proportion of the
labor force (other than government employees) who were employed during the previous
week. Both supply measures are regression-adjusted for human capital and then regressed
on the same explanatory variables as column 5 of Table 2, again using distance and
distance squared to the Myanmar border as instruments for migrant intensity. Table 4
shows the results. To save space, coefficient estimates for control variables have been
omitted from the table. As can be seen in column 1, Thai employment rates appear to be
positively related to migrant intensity. Given the semi-log specification of column 1, the
coefficient on migrant intensity implies that a 10 percent increase in migrant numbers is
associated with a 0.055 percentage point increase in Thai employment rate. There is a
hint of a positive relationship between migrant intensity and hours worked, but it is far
from being statistically significant.
[Table 4 here]