Immigration and the Canadian Earnings Distribution in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Queens University - Canada; University of British Columbia
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050716000541
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 387-426
• 关键词: labor-market; real wages; GROWTH; assimilation; IMPACT

摘要

We use newly available micro-data from the 1911 to 1941 Canadian Censuses to investigate the impact of immigration on the Canadian earnings distribution in the first half of the twentieth century. We show that Canadian inequality rose sharply in the inter-war years, particularly in the 1920s, coinciding with two of the largest immigration decades in Canadian history. We find that immigration was not the main force driving changes in the earnings distribution. This results from a combination of self-selection by immigrants, occupational adjustments after arrival, and general equilibrium adjustments in the economy.