IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberhi/0088.html

The Entry Into the U.S. Labor Market of Antebellum European Immigrants, 1840-60

Author

Listed:
  • Joseph P. Ferrie

Abstract

This study examines the occupational mobility of antebellum immigrants as they entered the U.S. White collar, skilled, and semi-skilled immigrants left unskilled jobs more rapidly after arrival than farmers and unskilled workers. British and German immigrants fared better than the Irish; literate immigrants in rapidly growing counties and places with many immigrants fared best. These findings have implications for (1) the accuracy of estimates of immigrant occupational mobility; (2) the size of the human capital transfer resulting from antebellum immigration; and (3) the causes of the difficulty experienced by some immigrant groups in transferring their skills to the U.S.

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph P. Ferrie, 1996. "The Entry Into the U.S. Labor Market of Antebellum European Immigrants, 1840-60," NBER Historical Working Papers 0088, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberhi:0088
    Note: DAE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/h0088.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hanes, Christopher, 1996. "Immigrants' Relative Rate of Wage Growth in the Late 19th Century," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 35-64, January.
    2. Robert A. Margo, 1992. "Wages and Prices during the Antebellum Period: A Survey and New Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: American Economic Growth and Standards of Living before the Civil War, pages 173-216, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Chiswick, Barry R., 1991. "Jewish immigrant skill and occupational attainment at the turn of the century," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 64-86, January.
    4. George J. Borjas, 1986. "The Self-Employment Experience of Immigrants," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 21(4), pages 485-506.
    5. Carter, Susan B. & Savoca, Elizabeth, 1990. "Labor Mobility and Lengthy Jobs in Nineteenth-Century America," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(1), pages 1-16, March.
    6. Robert E. Gallman & John Joseph Wallis, 1992. "American Economic Growth and Standards of Living before the Civil War," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gall92-1, December.
    7. George J. Borjas, 1994. "The Economics of Immigration," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(4), pages 1667-1717, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Salisbury, Laura, 2014. "Selective migration, wages, and occupational mobility in nineteenth century America," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 40-63.
    2. Richardson Gary, 2005. "The Origins of Anti-Immigrant Sentiments: Evidence from the Heartland in the Age of Mass Migration," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-48, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ferrie, Joseph P., 1997. "The Entry into the U.S. Labor Market of Antebellum European Immigrants, 1840-1860," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 295-330, July.
    2. Minns, Chris, 2000. "Income, Cohort Effects, and Occupational Mobility: A New Look at Immigration to the United States at the Turn of the 20th Century," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 326-350, October.
    3. Timothy J. Hatton, 2010. "The Cliometrics Of International Migration: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 941-969, December.
    4. Riillo, Cesare Fabio Antonio & Peroni, Chiara, 2022. "Immigration and entrepreneurship in Europe: cross-country evidence," MPRA Paper 114580, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Marcén, Miriam, 2013. "The effect of culture on self-employment," MPRA Paper 47338, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Robert A. Margo, 2000. "The History of Wage Inequality in America, 1920 to 1970," Macroeconomics 0004035, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Robert W. Fairlie & Bruce D. Meyer, "undated". "Does Immigration Hurt African-American Self-Employment?," IPR working papers 97-1, Institute for Policy Resarch at Northwestern University.
    8. Marcén, Miriam, 2014. "The role of culture on self-employment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 44(S1), pages 20-32.
    9. Marcus H. Böhme & Sarah Kups, 2017. "The economic effects of labour immigration in developing countries: A literature review," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 335, OECD Publishing.
    10. Alicia Robb & Robert Fairlie, 2006. "Determinants of Business Success: An Examination of Asian-Owned Businesses in the United States," Working Papers 06-32, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    11. Hedberg, Charlotta, 2009. "Intersections of Immigrant status and Gender in the Swedish Entrepreneurial Landscape," SULCIS Working Papers 2009:8, Stockholm University, Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS.
    12. Alicia Robb & Robert Fairlie, 2009. "Determinants of business success: an examination of Asian-owned businesses in the USA," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(4), pages 827-858, October.
    13. Matthew J. Slaughter, 1995. "The Antebellum Transportation Revolution and Factor-Price Convergence," NBER Working Papers 5303, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Matthew Slaughter, 2001. "Does trade liberalization converge factor prices? Evidence from the antebellum transportation revolution," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 339-362.
    15. Lofstrom, Magnus, 2000. "Self-Employment and Earnings among High-Skilled Immigrants in the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 175, IZA Network @ LISER.
    16. Ran Abramitzky & Leah Boustan, 2017. "Immigration in American Economic History," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1311-1345, December.
    17. Robert W. Fairlie & Bruce D. Meyer, 2003. "The Effect of Immigration on Native Self-Employment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(3), pages 619-650, July.
    18. Inwood, Kris & Minns, Chris & Summerfield, Fraser, 2019. "Occupational income scores and immigrant assimilation. Evidence from the Canadian census," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 114-122.
    19. Joshua L. Rosenbloom, 1996. "The Extent of the Labor Market in the United States, 1850-1914," NBER Historical Working Papers 0078, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Lynne L. Kiesling & Robert A. Margo, 1996. "Explaining the Rise in Antebellum Pauperism: New Evidence," NBER Historical Working Papers 0092, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N3 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

    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:nbr:nberhi:0088. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.