Multiculturalism and Growth: Skill-Specific Evidence from the Post-World War II Period

Frédéric Docquier, Riccardo Turati, Jérôme Valette and Chrysovalantis Vasilakis

No 2016028, LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES from Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)

Abstract: This paper empirically revisits the impact of multiculturalism (as proxied by indices of birthplace diversity and polarization among immigrants, or by epidemiological terms) on the macroeconomic performance of US states over the 1960-2010 period. We test for skill-specific effects of multiculturalism, controlling for standard growth regressors and a variety of fixed effects, and accounting for the age of entry and legal status of immigrants. To identify causation, we compare various instrumentation strategies used in the existing literature. We provide converging and robust evidence of a positive and significant effect of diversity among college-educated immigrants on GDP per capita. Overall, a 10% increase in high-skilled diversity raises GDP per capita by 6.2%. On the contrary, diversity among less educated immigrants has insignificant effects. Also, we find no evidence of a quadratic effect or a contamination by economic conditions in poor countries.

Keywords: Immigration; Culture; Birthplace Diversity; Growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15
Date: 2016-12-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro, nep-his, nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Multiculturalism and Growth: Skill-Specific Evidence from the Post-World War II Period (2017)
Working Paper: Multiculturalism and Growth: Skill-Specific Evidence from the Post-World War II Period (2017)
Working Paper: Multiculturalism and Growth: Skill-Specific Evidence from the Post-World War II Period (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctl:louvir:2016028

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