Returns to skills, skill premium and occupational skill-sectors analysis comparing Italian immigrants to the US and Argentina during the Age of Mass Migration

Bella Jackson

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: The Age of Mass Migration saw unprecedented flows of Italian migrants to the US and Argentina, mostly directed to NYC and Buenos Aires. Droller, Fizsbein and Pérez claim that Italians in Argentina were more skilled than those in America. If so, why did higher-skilled Italians move to Argentina over America when real wages were higher in America than Argentina? I assemble datasets using Argentine and American censuses and wage data to compare literacy rates and occupational compositions of Italian immigrants between these countries and cities. I create a regression model to contrast the returns to skills between Italians in Argentina and America and I determine skill premia for both Italian cohorts using income data. I find that Italian immigrants in Argentina were more skilled than Italian immigrants in America, due to higher literacy rates and a higher-skilled occupational composition. I argue that the skill scarcity in Argentina, and higher returns to skills and skill premia than America, explains the greater appeal of Argentina for skilled Italian migrants. I stress the importance of considering returns to skills and skill premia when studying migratory flows between destination countries.

Keywords: gender pay gap; gender equality; economic growth; human development; South Korean growth; marital status; trade unions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 61 pages
Date: 2024-10-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-int, nep-lma, nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/125829/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:125829

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().