The impact of immigration on American import trade in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

• 成果类型: Article; Proceedings Paper
• 署名作者: University System of Ohio; Miami University; University System of Ohio; Miami University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S002205070002413X
• 发表日期: 1999
• 页码: 1043-1062
• 关键词: INTERNATIONAL-TRADE; 19th-century immigrants; settlement-patterns; gravity equation; UNITED-STATES; migration; COMPETITION; MARKETS

摘要

Studies of the contemporary period for the United States and for Canada have established that the presence of an immigrant population is associated with an increase in trade between the immigrants' host and origin countries. We wish to discover if such a protrade phenomenon was systematically associated with the massive inflow of immigrants to the United States during the 40 years preceding World War I. Applying a gravity model to U.S. imports of 78 commodities from 17 countries at five-year intervals, we find support for a broad pro-import immigrant effect, especially for more finished and more differentiated goods.