IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/luekhi/0243.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Home, Sweet Home: Returns to Returning in the Age of Mass Migration

Author

Listed:
  • Ejermo, Olof

    (Department of Economic History, Lund University)

  • Enflo, Kerstin

    (Department of Economic History, Lund University)

  • Eriksson, Björn

    (Department of Economic History, Lund University)

  • Prawitz, Erik

    (Linnaeus University & Research Institute of Industrial Economics)

Abstract

Studying migrants from Sweden to the United States, we provide new evidence on return migration during the Age of Mass Migration. Focusing on a sample of migrants and stayers observed in childhood, we document limited effects on income and occupational upgrading, but large effects on wealth. Male returnees held about twice as much wealth as stayers and about 40 percent more than staying brothers. These effects were likely driven by accumulated savings overseas, rather than inheritance or an income premium back home. For female returnees, wealth effects are of similar magnitude, but appear to be realized primarily through marriage.

Suggested Citation

  • Ejermo, Olof & Enflo, Kerstin & Eriksson, Björn & Prawitz, Erik, 2022. "Home, Sweet Home: Returns to Returning in the Age of Mass Migration," Lund Papers in Economic History 243, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0243
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/system/files/publication-files/DP17668.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    Keywords

    emigration; returnees; selection; return location; occupational and social upgrading; income and wealth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0243. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tobias Karlsson or Benny Carlsson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dhlunse.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.