Do you have to be tall and educated to be a migrant? Evidence from Spanish recruitment records, 1890–1950

Dácil Juif and Gloria Quiroga

Economics & Human Biology, 2019, vol. 34, issue C, 115-124

Abstract: We use Spanish military records stemming from the late-19th to the mid-20th century to assess internal migrants’ self-selection. We find that migrants were, on average over the whole period, around one centimeter taller than non-migrants, and in the booming 1920s, the height advantage of movers reached three centimeters. The positive self-selection was larger for migrants originating in poorer provinces and traveling longer distances. A further finding is that migrants were positively selected in terms of literacy and socio-economic status according to their occupation. Professionals were most likely to have migrated internally and farmers least.

Keywords: Internal migration; Migrant self-selection; Spain; Early industrialization; Human stature (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:34:y:2019:i:c:p:115-124

DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2018.12.006

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