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Migration and Human Capital: Self-Selection of Indentured Servants to the Americas

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  • Abramitzky, Ran
  • Braggion, Fabio

Abstract

When contracting, European merchants could at least partially observe characteristics such as the health, physical strength, and education of indentured servants. These characteristics, unobservable to us, were likely to influence servitude duration, which is observable to us. We employ a switching regression model to analyze 2,066 servitude contracts from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Servants were positively selected to American mainland colonies in terms of their unobservable human capital and negatively selected to the West Indies. Thus, the relative quality of migrants' human capital may have played a role in the subsequent relative economic performance of these regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Abramitzky, Ran & Braggion, Fabio, 2006. "Migration and Human Capital: Self-Selection of Indentured Servants to the Americas," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 66(4), pages 882-905, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:66:y:2006:i:04:p:882-905_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Suresh Naidu & Yaw Nyarko & Shing-Yi Wang, 2016. "Monopsony Power in Migrant Labor Markets: Evidence from the United Arab Emirates," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(6), pages 1735-1792.
    2. Bruno Gabriel Witzel de Souza, 2019. "The rationale of sharecropping: immigrant bonded laborers and the transition from slavery in Brazil (1830-1890)," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 239, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Ran Abramitzky & Leah Boustan, 2017. "Immigration in American Economic History," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1311-1345, December.
    4. Eric C. Edwards & Martin Fiszbein & Gary D. Libecap, 2022. "Property Rights to Land and Agricultural Organization: An Argentina–United States Comparison," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(S1), pages 1-33.
    5. Kesztenbaum, Lionel & Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent, 2011. "The health cost of living in a city: The case of France at the end of the 19th century," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 207-225, April.
    6. Ran Abramitzky & Leah Platt Boustan & Katherine Eriksson, 2012. "Europe's Tired, Poor, Huddled Masses: Self-Selection and Economic Outcomes in the Age of Mass Migration," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(5), pages 1832-1856, August.
    7. Suresh Naidu & Yaw Nyarko & Shing-Yi Wang, 2014. "Worker Mobility in a Global Labor Market: Evidence from the United Arab Emirates," NBER Working Papers 20388, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. George J Borjas & Ilpo Kauppinen & Panu Poutvaara, 2019. "Self-selection of Emigrants: Theory and Evidence on Stochastic Dominance in Observable and Unobservable Characteristics," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(617), pages 143-171.
    9. Abramitzky, Ran, 2009. "The effect of redistribution on migration: Evidence from the Israeli kibbutz," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3-4), pages 498-511, April.
    10. Oriana Bandiera & Myra Mohnen & Imran Rasul & Martina Viarengo, 2019. "Nation-building Through Compulsory Schooling during the Age of Mass Migration," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(617), pages 62-109.
    11. David de la Croix & Frédéric Docquier & Alice Fabre & Robert Stelter, 2024. "The Academic Market and The Rise of Universities in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (1000–1800)," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 22(4), pages 1541-1589.
    12. Gary D. Libecap, 2018. "Property Rights to Frontier Land and Minerals: US Exceptionalism," NBER Working Papers 24544, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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