Transatlantic wage gaps and the migration decision: Europe–Canada in the 1920s

Alex Armstrong () and Frank Lewis

Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, 2017, vol. 11, issue 2, 153-182

Abstract: As has been seen in other contexts, workers in similar occupations earned much higher wages in Canada than Europe during the 1920s. This observation and related aspects of immigration are addressed with a life-cycle model of the migration decision. The characteristics of immigrants from five European countries: Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden, are explored in a way that sheds light not just on those population flows but on the process of immigration generally. We draw on passenger manifests from immigrant ships for information on the individual migrants. Simulations, based partly on the these manifests, reveal that the costs of migration, borrowing constraints, concern for status, and country-specific taste preferences account for key immigrant characteristics, and help explain the large wage differentials that persisted despite Canada’s relatively open immigration policy.

Keywords: Immigration; Wage differentials; Borrowing constraints; Status (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 N32 N34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:afc:cliome:v:11:y:2017:i:2:p:153-182

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