Where Are the Streets of Gold, and Why? A New Approach to Cross-Country Analysis and an Application to Immigrant Assimilation

Many big questions in social sciences concern cross-country differences, yet credible answers are difficult to establish. This lecture proposes a framework that uses cross-country analysis to narrow plausible mechanisms, followed by targeted causal studies. We apply this approach to immigrant assimilation, documenting strong upward mobility for children of immigrants in the Anglosphere, but weaker outcomes for sons in continental Europe. Gender and class patterns that vary across countries rule out explanations based on immigrant selection or destination countries’ immigration history, pointing instead to the potential role of differences in educational and vocational institutions between the Anglosphere and the Continent.