A woman's touch? Female migration and economic development in the United States

Viola von Berlepsch, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Neil Lee

No 1815, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: Does the economic effect of immigrant women differ from that of immigrants in general? This paper examines if gender has influenced the short- and long-term economic impact of mass migration to the US, using Census microdata from 1880 and 1910. By means of ordinary least squares and instrumental variable estimations, the analysis shows that a greater concentration of immigrant women is significantly associated with lower levels of economic development in US counties. However, immigrant women also shaped economic development positively, albeit indirectly via their children. Communities with more children born to foreign mothers and that successfully managed to integrate female immigrants experienced greater economic growth than those dominated by children of foreign-born fathers or American-born parents.

Keywords: Gender; migration; economic growth; development; counties; US (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J16 J61 O15 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-04, Revised 2018-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen, nep-his, nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Working Paper: A woman’s touch? Female migration and economic development in the United States (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egu:wpaper:1815

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