Does It Matter Where You Came From? Ancestry Composition and Economic Performance of U.S. Counties, 1850-2010

Scott Fulford, Ivan Petkov and Fabio Schiantarelli

No 875, Boston College Working Papers in Economics from Boston College Department of Economics

Abstract: What impact do immigrants and their descendants have in the short and long term? The answer depends on the attributes they bring with them, what they pass on to their children, and how they interact with other groups. We develop the first measures of the country-of-ancestry composition and GDP per worker for US counties from 1850 to 2010. We show that ancestry groups have different impacts on county productivity. Groups from countries with higher economic development, with cultural traits that favor cooperation, and with a long history of a centralized state have a greater positive impact on county GDP per worker. Ancestry diversity is positively related to county GDP per worker, while diversity in origin-country economic development or culture is negatively related.

Keywords: Immigration; Ethnicity; Ancestry; Economic Development; Culture; Institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 N31 N32 O10 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-05-15, Revised 2020-04-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-evo, nep-gro, nep-his, nep-lab, nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Does it matter where you came from? Ancestry composition and economic performance of US counties, 1850–2010 (2020)
Working Paper: Does It Matter Where You Came From? Ancestry Composition and Economic Performance of U.S. Counties, 1850-2010 (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:boc:bocoec:875

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