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Who Crossed the Border? Self-Selection of Mexican Migrants in the Early Twentieth Century

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  • Kosack, Edward
  • Ward, Zachary

Abstract

We estimate the self-selection of Mexican migrants into and out of the United States in the 1920s. Officials recorded migrant height on border crossing manifests, which we use to proxy migrant quality and to measure self-selection into migration in 1920. Migrants were positively selected on height compared to the Mexican population. We link these migrants to the 1930 U.S. and Mexican censuses to obtain samples of permanent and return migrants and to estimate the selection into return migration. Return migrants were not differentially self-selected on height relative to permanent migrants.

Suggested Citation

  • Kosack, Edward & Ward, Zachary, 2014. "Who Crossed the Border? Self-Selection of Mexican Migrants in the Early Twentieth Century," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(4), pages 1015-1044, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:74:y:2014:i:04:p:1015-1044_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Ran Abramitzky & Roy Mill & Santiago Pérez, 2020. "Linking individuals across historical sources: A fully automated approach," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(2), pages 94-111, April.
    2. Schneider, Eric & Ogasawara, Kota & Cole, Tim J., 2020. "The Effect of the Second World War on the Growth Pattern of Height in Japanese Children: Catch-up Growth, Critical Windows and," CEPR Discussion Papers 14808, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Ager, Philipp & Feigenbaum, James J & Hansen, Casper Worm & Tan, Huiren, 2020. "How the Other Half Died: Immigration and Mortality in US Cities," CEPR Discussion Papers 14949, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Ran Abramitzky & Leah Boustan & Katherine Eriksson & James Feigenbaum & Santiago Pérez, 2021. "Automated Linking of Historical Data," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 865-918, September.
    5. Escamilla Guerrero, David & Lepistö, Miko & Minns, Chris, 2022. "Explaining gender differences in migrant sorting: evidence from Canada-US migration," Economic History Working Papers 117260, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    6. Eric B. Schneider & Kota Ogasawara & Tim J. Cole, 2021. "Health Shocks, Recovery, and the First Thousand Days: The Effect of the Second World War on Height Growth in Japanese Children," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(4), pages 1075-1105, December.
    7. Michael A. Clemens, 2022. "Migration on the Rise, a Paradigm in Decline: The Last Half-Century of Global Mobility," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 112, pages 257-261, May.
    8. Greenwood, Michael J. & Ward, Zachary, 2015. "Immigration quotas, World War I, and emigrant flows from the United States in the early 20th century," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 76-96.
    9. David Escamilla-Guerrero, 2020. "Revisiting Mexican migration in the Age of Mass Migration: New evidence from individual border crossings," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 207-225, October.
    10. Catron, Peter & Loria, Maria Vignau, 2021. "The Economic Attainment of Mexican Refugees during the Age of Mass Migration," SocArXiv qgj3p, Center for Open Science.
    11. Escamilla-Guerrero, David & López-Alonso, Moramay, 2023. "Migrant Self-Selection and Random Shocks: Evidence from the Panic of 1907," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 83(1), pages 45-85, March.
    12. Ran Abramitzky & Leah Boustan, 2017. "Immigration in American Economic History," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1311-1345, December.
    13. Spitzer, Yannay & Zimran, Ariell, 2018. "Migrant self-selection: Anthropometric evidence from the mass migration of Italians to the United States, 1907–1925," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 226-247.
    14. Ward, Zachary, 2017. "Birds of passage: Return migration, self-selection and immigration quotas," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 37-52.
    15. Escamilla-Guerrero, David & Kosack, Edward & Ward, Zachary, 2023. "The Impact of Violence during the Mexican Revolution on Migration to the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 16359, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Escamilla-Guerrero, David & Kosack, Edward & Ward, Zachary, 2021. "Life after crossing the border: Assimilation during the first Mexican mass migration," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    17. David Escamilla-Guerrero & Moramay Lopez-Alonso, 2019. "Self-selection of Mexican migrants in the presence of random shocks: Evidence from the Panic of 1907," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-23, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Matthias Blum & Claudia Rei, 2018. "Escaping Europe: health and human capital of Holocaust refugees1," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 22(1), pages 1-27.
    19. Santiago Pérez, 2019. "Southern (American) Hospitality: Italians in Argentina and the US during the Age of Mass Migration," NBER Working Papers 26127, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Zachary Ward, 2015. "The U-Shaped Self-Selection of Return Migrants," CEH Discussion Papers 035, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    21. Catherine G. Massey, 2016. "Playing with Matches: An Assessment of Accuracy in Linked Historical Data," CARRA Working Papers 2016-05, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    22. Alexander Persaud, 2023. "A (paid) passage to India: Migration and revealed willingness to pay for upper‐caste status," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(3), pages 652-674, July.

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