Working Paper: NBER ID: w24763
Authors: Katherine Eriksson
Abstract: This paper examines the effect of ethnic enclaves on economic outcomes of Norwegian immigrants in 1910 and 1920, the later part of the Age of Mass Migration. Using different identification strategies, including county fixed effects and an instrumental variables strategy based on chain migration, I consistently find that Norwegians living in larger enclaves in the United States had lower occupational earnings, were more likely to be in farming occupations, and were less likely to be in white-collar occupations. Results are robust to matching method and choice of occupational score. This earnings disadvantage is partly passed on to the second generation.
Keywords: ethnic enclaves; immigrant outcomes; Norwegian immigrants; mass migration
JEL Codes: J61; N31
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Larger ethnic enclaves (R23) | Lower occupational earnings (J31) |
| Larger ethnic enclaves (R23) | Lower occupational earnings for sons of Norwegian-born men (J79) |
| Lower occupational earnings for sons of Norwegian-born men (J79) | More likely to work in farming occupations (J43) |
| Larger ethnic enclaves (R23) | More likely to work in farming occupations (J43) |
| Larger ethnic enclaves (R23) | Less likely to be in white-collar jobs (J79) |