Migration, Population Composition and Long Run Economic Development: Evidence from Settlements in the Pampas

68 Pages Posted: 24 Mar 2018

See all articles by Federico Droller

Federico Droller

Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Facultad de Administración y Economía

Date Written: December 2016

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of population composition on long run economic development, by studying European migration to Argentina during the Age of Mass Migration (1850-1914). I use an instrumental variables (IV) approach that assigns immigrants to counties by interacting two sources of variation: the availability of land for settlement and the arrival of Europeans over time. Counties with historically higher shares of European population in 1914 have higher per-capita GDP 80 years later. I show that this long run effect is linked to the higher level of human capital that immigrants brought to Argentina. I show that Europeans raised literacy rates in the receiving counties, and that high-skilled Europeans played an important role in the onset of industrialization, owned most of the industrial establishments, and provided the majority of the industrial labour force.

Keywords: Economic Growth and Development, Human Capital, Literacy, Industrialization, Migration

JEL Classification: O11, O14, O15, O47, N16, N66

Suggested Citation

Droller, Federico, Migration, Population Composition and Long Run Economic Development: Evidence from Settlements in the Pampas (December 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3146981 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3146981

Federico Droller (Contact Author)

Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Facultad de Administración y Economía ( email )

Avenida Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins nº 3363
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Santiago, Región Metropolitana 9170022
Chile
227180841 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/site/fdroller/

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