Immigration Restrictions and the Wages of Low-Skilled Labor: Evidence from the 1920s

Jeff Biddle and Elior Cohen

No RWP 22-12, Research Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

Abstract: 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 reflect sustained labor scarcity rather than mechanical compositional changes.

Keywords: immigration policy; labor markets; wages; low-skilled labor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J31 K37 N32 N42 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 94
Date: 2022-09-27, Revised 2026-07-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-int, nep-mig and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedkrw:94842

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DOI: 10.18651/RWP2022-12

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