Immigrant Communities and Knowledge Spillovers: Danish-Americans and the Development of the Dairy Industry in the United States

Paul Sharp and Nina Boberg-Fazlic

No 13757, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Despite the growing literature on the impact of immigration, little is known about the role existing migrant settlements can play for knowledge transmission. We present a case which can illustrate this important mechanism and hypothesize that nineteenth century Danish-American communities helped spread knowledge on modern dairying to rural America. From around 1880, Denmark developed rapidly and by 1890 it was a world-leading dairy producer. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, and data taken from the US census and Danish emigration archives, we find that counties with more Danes in 1880 subsequently both specialized in dairying and used more modern practices.

Keywords: Dairying; Immigration; Knowledge spillovers; Technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J61 N11 N31 N51 O33 Q16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-his and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Immigrant Communities and Knowledge Spillovers: Danish Americans and the Development of the Dairy Industry in the United States (2024)
Working Paper: Immigrant Communities and Knowledge Spillovers: Danish-Americans and the Development of the Dairy Industry in the United States (2020)
Working Paper: Immigrant Communities and Knowledge Spillovers: DanishAmericans and the Development of the Dairy Industry in the United States (2019)
Working Paper: Immigrant Communities and Knowledge Spillovers: Danish-Americans and the Development of the Dairy Industry in the United States (2019)
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