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Working Paper
Immigration Disruptions and the Wages of Unskilled Labor in the 1920s
An era of mass immigration into the United States ended with the onset of World War I in Europe, followed by the passage of restrictive immigration laws in 1921 and 1924. We analyze various sources of wage data collected in the 1910-1929 period to explore the impact of this significant disruption of the flow of immigration on the wages of unskilled labor. Our approach to identification entails examining differences in wages across local labor markets and industries differentially exposed to the disruptions in immigration due to different ethnic compositions oftheir immigrant populations in ...
Working Paper
Immigration Restrictions and the Wages of Low-Skilled Labor: Evidence from the 1920s
The era of mass immigration into the US ended with the onset of WWI and the passage of restrictive immigration laws in the 1920s. To understand the impact of this disruption to immigration on low-skilled labor wages, we analyze newly digitized wage data from 1910 through 1929. The laws restricted immigration from certain countries more than others, which affected local labor markets differently. Our findings suggestthat industries and regions with more exposure to these restrictions experienced larger reductions in immigration flows, leading to relatively higher wages for low-skilled labor ...
Working Paper
Immigration Restrictions and the Wages of Low-Skilled Labor: Evidence from the 1920s
This paper examines how the U.S. immigration restrictions of the 1920s affected the wages of low-skilled workers using newly digitized annual wage data from 1910 to 1930. Exploiting variation across local labor markets, we find that wages for low-skilled workers rose faster in areas more affected by the restrictions. These wage effects emerged early in the 1920s and persisted throughout the decade across manufacturing, construction, and agricultural sectors. Our findings help explain previously documented internal migration patterns and demonstrate how reduced immigration affected labor ...
Working Paper
Immigration Restrictions and the Wages of Low-Skilled Labor: Evidence from the 1920s
How do immigration restrictions affect the wages of low-skilled workers? We study the 1920s U.S. national-origins quotas, which abruptly and unevenly curtailed immigration from key source countries, generating sharp labor-supply shocks across local markets. Using newly digitized annual wage data for low-skilled laborers from 1910–1929, we show that wages rose faster in markets more dependent on restricted-origin immigrants, with effects emerging soon after 1920, intensifying through the mid-1920s, and persisting over time. Evidence on wage dynamics and mechanisms indicates that these gains ...