Essays on the Law and Economics of Migration

This dissertation examines the legal and economic impacts of immigration. The first chapter studies the effect of high-skilled immigration on housing resale values. I find that expanding the stock of high-skilled immigrants has a negative effect on housing resale, while expanding the flow has a positive effect. The second chapter examines the impact of immigration to non-gateway cities in the wake of new automobile plants opening to provide evidence about the formation of gateway cities. I find that immigrants tend to cluster even to non-gateway cities following the opening of an anchor tenant. The third chapter deals with the impact of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions's decision in Matter of A-B- on asylum grant rates. The decision had limited precedential effect, but generated outsized attention. I use the differences in circuit interpretations of Matter of A-B- to provide evidence of the relationship between restrictive agency rulings on successful asylum applications. I find that Matter of A-B- reduced asylum grant rates, despite putatively maintaining the standard for domestic violence (and other "private violence") claims.