Migration, Population Composition and Long Run Economic Development: Evidence from Settlements in the Pampas

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Droller, Federico
• 署名单位: Universidad de Santiago de Chile
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12505
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 2321-2352
• 关键词: institutions; AGE; immigration; INEQUALITY; education; outcomes; origins; HISTORY; GROWTH

摘要

This article analyses the impact of population composition on long run economic development, by studying European migration to Argentina during the Age of Mass Migration (1850-1914). I use an instrumental variables (IV) approach that assigns immigrants to counties by interacting two sources of variation: the availability of land for settlement and the arrival of Europeans over time. Counties with historically higher shares of European population in 1914 have higher per capita GDP 80years later. I show that this long run effect is linked to the higher level of human capital that immigrants brought to Argentina. I show that Europeans raised literacy rates in the receiving counties, and that high-skilled Europeans played an important role in the onset of industrialisation, owned most of the industrial establishments, and provided the majority of the industrial labour force.