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The American Frontier: A Hundred Years of Western Settlement

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Author Info
Guillaume Vandenbroucke

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Abstract

What drove western population growth in the U.S. during the 19th century? The facts are: (i) The birth ratio was higher in the West than in the East. Both exhibited a secular decline. (ii) Between 1800 and 1810 net migration accounted for 88% of the rate of population growth in the northwest region. The rest derived from natural increase. From 1890 to 1900, this share dropped to 35%, with natural increase accounting for 65%. To account for these facts, a general equilibrium model is developed with three ingredients: endogenous fertility, investment in land, and migration. The secular decline in fertility is driven by the rise in real wages. The relative abundance of land in the West promotes higher fertility. The model is simulated to see whether it can match the time-series decomposition of population growth between migration and fertility. It can

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Society for Economic Dynamics in its series 2004 Meeting Papers with number 163.

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Date of creation: 2004
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Handle: RePEc:red:sed004:163

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Related research
Keywords: Population Growth; Migration; Fertility; Land;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E1 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models
J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
O1 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Jeremy Greenwood & Ananth Seshadri, 2001. "The U.S. demographic transition," Working Paper 0118, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Robert E. Gallman, 1992. "American Economic Growth before the Civil War: The Testimony of the Capital Stock Estimates," NBER Chapters, in: American Economic Growth and Standards of Living before the Civil War, pages 79-120 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  3. Jeremy Greenwood & Ananth Seshadri & Guillaume Vandenbroucke, 2002. "The baby boom and baby bust: some macroeconomics for population economics," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. repec:att:wimass:192022 is not listed on IDEAS
  5. Matthias Doepke, 2002. "Child Mortality and Fertility Decline: Does the Barro-Becker Model Fit the Facts?," UCLA Economics Working Papers 824, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Robert E. Gallman, 1986. "The United States Capital Stock in the Nineteenth Century," NBER Chapters, in: Long-Term Factors in American Economic Growth, pages 165-214 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  7. Guillaume Vandenbroucke, 2003. "The U.S. Westward Expansion," Economie d'Avant Garde Research Reports 4, Economie d'Avant Garde, revised Apr 2004. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Margo, Robert A., 1999. "Regional Wage Gaps and the Settlement of the Midwest," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 128-143, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-5.

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