The Effects of Immigration Quotas on Wages, the Great Black Migration, and Industrial Development

68 Pages Posted: 27 Dec 2017

See all articles by Bin Xie

Bin Xie

Jinan University; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Abstract

This paper exploits the exogenous and differential immigrant supply shocks caused by the immigration quota system in the 1920s to identify the causal effects of the immigration restriction on the US manufacturing wages, the Great Migration, and industrial production between 1920 and 1930. I find that the immigration restriction significantly increased manufacturing wages and encouraged the southern black population to migrate to the North. I also find that the decline in the immigrant supply constrained the growth of the scale of manufacturing production and discouraged technology adoption of electrification.

Keywords: immigration restriction, Great Black Migration, industrial development

JEL Classification: J61, K37, N32

Suggested Citation

Xie, Bin, The Effects of Immigration Quotas on Wages, the Great Black Migration, and Industrial Development. IZA Discussion Paper No. 11214, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3092558 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3092558

Bin Xie (Contact Author)

Jinan University ( email )

601 Huangpu Avenue, Tianhe District
Guangzhou, Guangdong 510632
China

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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