Tue May 20 04:03:55 EDT 1997
EHS Abstract Submission
(c) 1997 EH.Net
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Name: Timothy J. Hatton
Email: thatton at eh.net
Institution: University of Essex
Co-author: None
Title: How Much Did Immigrant 'Quality' Decline in
Late-Nineteenth-Century America?
Internet Address
of abstracted work: Not available on the Internet
By mail:
Timothy J. Hatton
Department of Economics
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom
Language: English
Abstract:
This paper examines the parallels in the debates on the
decline in immigrant quality (so-called) between the late
nineteenth and the late twentieth centuries.
Late-nineteenth-century observers argued that the recent
immigrants were inferior, and in particular, less skilled, than
the old. I estimate wage equations for 1909, allowing for
different effects by nationality. I then examine the
relationship between the immigrant wage rates and the
characteristics of the different nationalities on arrival in the
United States. I apply the estimated wage differentials to the
immigrant composition to measure the effect of changing
composition on immigrant earnings. Finally I ask how immigrant
earning power changed relative to that of those American-born. I
conclude that immigrant quality in terms of earnings did decline
by about 5 percent and that this was almost entirely due to
shifts in the nationality composition. But these effects are
only a fifth of the size of those reported in studies of the
post-Second World War period.
Bibliography: Hatton, Timothy J. "How Much Did Immigrant
'Quality' Decline in Late-Nineteenth-Century America?" Paper
presented at the Cliometrics Conference, University of Toronto,
May 1997.
Subject: T
Geographical Area: 7
Country/Region: United States
Time Period: 0, 7, 9