Abstract
We study the effects of European immigration to the U.S. during the Age of Mass Migration (1850-1920) on economic prosperity. Exploiting cross-county variation in immigration that arises from the interaction of fluctuations in aggregate immigrant flows and of the gradual expansion of the railway network, we find that counties with more historical immigration have higher income, less poverty, less unemployment, higher rates of urbanization, and greater educational attainment today. The long-run effects seem to capture the persistence of short-run benefits, including greater industrialization, increased agricultural productivity, and more innovation.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 382-419 |
| Number of pages | 38 |
| Journal | Review of Economic Studies |
| Volume | 87 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2021 |
Funding
Acknowledgments. We are grateful for the comments and suggestions received from the editor Nicola Gennaioli, as well as three anonymous referees. We also thank Ran Abramitzky, Philipp Ager, Leah Boustan, Felipe Valencia Caicedo, Melissa Dell, Dave Donaldson, Claudia Goldin, Casper Worm Hansen, Jeff Frieden, Larry Katz, Petra Moser, Gerard Padro-i-Miquel, Frank Windmeijer and Gavin Wright, as well as audiences at numerous seminars and conferences for comments. We thank Mohammad Ahmad, Paulo Costa, Ariel Gomez, Daniel Lowery, Daria Kutzenova, Eva Ng, Matthew Summers, Guo Xu, and Adam Xu for excellent research assistance. We gratefully acknowledge funding for this project from the Russell Sage Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.
Keywords
- Economic development
- Historical persistence
- Immigration
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Economics and Econometrics
