I have been a Lecturer (~US Assistant Professor) at The Australian National University since February 2015. My research interests are in labor economics and economic history.

Recent projects have focused on the assimilation of immigrants in the 19th and early 20th century United States. Research in this area has been reinvigorated with the mass digitization of historical census files by the fine folks at IPUMS.

You can contact me at: Zach.A.Ward (at) gmail.com

Publications

1. Birds of Passage: Return Migration, Self-Selection and Immigration Quotas
            Explorations in Economic History, April 2017
2. The Circular Flow: Return Migration from the United States in the Early 1900s
            The Journal of Economic History, June 2016 [dissertation summary]
3. Immigration Quotas, World War I, and Emigrant Flows from the United States in the Early 20th Century (with Michael J. Greenwood)
            Explorations in Economic History, January 2015
4. Who Crossed the Border?  Self-Selection of Mexican Migrants in the Early 20th Century (with Edward Kosack)
            The Journal of Economic History, December 2014 Online appendix

Working Papers

  1. The Role of English Fluency in Migrant Assimilation: Evidence from United States History, June 2017 [new version]
  2. The Not-So-Hot Melting Pot: The Persistence of Outcomes for Descendants of the Age of Mass Migration, June 2017 [new version]
  3. The Paramount Importance of Childhood Environment during the Age of Mass Migration (with Rohan Alexander), May 2017, revisions requested
  4. There and Back (and Back) Again: Repeat Migration to the United States, 1897-1936, March 2016