Research
Working Papers
Closing the Gates: Assessing Impacts of the Immigration Act of 1917 (last updated: June 2024)
with Ina Ganguli
Abstract:
On February 5, 1917, the United States passed the Immigration Act of 1917, which included a test for all migrants arriving to the U.S. to prove they were literate. The Literacy Test was one of the first and few times the U.S. used a broad ‘skill-based’ immigration policy in an attempt to limit migration. We assess whether the Immigration Act had any measurable impacts on immigration to the U.S. Using a differences-in-differences approach and digitized data from Ellis Island ship manifests from directly before and after the Act’s passage and enactment, we show that the Act significantly altered selection into migration to the U.S. from Europe through Ellis Island, reducing migration from low literacy countries by 70 percent compared to arrivals from high-literacy countries. We also discuss other provisions of the Act that had the potential to influence the gender composition of arrivals. We show that women – and in particular single women – were less likely to arrive after its passage. Our analysis suggests that even during this period of lower immigration due to WWI and rising literacy levels, the 1917 Act was a consequential moment in immigration history in the United States.
Gender and Racial Differences in Migration Behavior: Evidence from the Farm Exodus within and out of the U.S. South, 1900-1940
(Revise and Resubmit, The Journal of Economic History)
Abstract:
Using linked Census Tree records and archival sources, I explore the roles of race and gender in migrant selection and sorting during the exodus of young men and women from U.S. Southern farms from 1900-1940. Female migration rates rose during the farm crisis of 1920-1940, equal to or exceeding men's by 1940. Differences in selection by race and gender reflect the influence of the family and on- and off-farm discrimination in the migration decision. Out-of-South Black female migrants, but not within-South, were positively selected on education while White women were positively selected across both destinations.
A previous version of this paper appeared under the title: "The Farm Woman's Problems": Farm Crisis in the U.S. South and Migration to the City, 1920-1940 (last updated: Oct. 2021)
Building the Prototype Census Environmental Impacts Frame (last updated: April 2023)
with John Voorheis, Jonathan Colmer, Kendall Houghton, Eva Lyubich, Mary Munro, and Cameron Scalera
Abstract:
The natural environment is central to all aspects of life, but efforts to quantify its influence have been hindered by data availability and measurement constraints. To mitigate some of these challenges, we introduce a new prototype of a microdata infras tructure: the Census Environmental Impacts Frame (EIF). The EIF provides detailed individual-level information on demographics, economic characteristics, and address level histories –- linked to spatially and temporally resolved estimates of environmental conditions for each individual –- for almost every resident in the United States over the past two decades. This linked microdata infrastructure provides a unique platform for advancing our understanding about the distribution of environmental amenities and hazards, when, how, and why exposures have evolved over time, and the consequences of environmental inequality and changing environmental conditions. We describe the construction of the EIF, explore issues of coverage and data quality, document patterns and trends in individual exposure to two correlated but distinct air pollutants as an application of the EIF, and discuss implications and opportunities for future research.
Works in Progress
The Census Historical Environmental Impacts Frame
with Kendall Houghton, Eva Lyubich, Surya Menon, Mary Munro, Suvy Qin, and John Voorheis
Abstract:
The Census Bureau’s Environmental Impacts Frame (EIF) is a microdata infrastructure that combines individual-level information on residence, demographics, and economic characteristics with geospatial data on environmental amenities and hazards from 1999 through the present day. To better understand the long-run consequences and intergenerational effects of exposure to a changing environment, we expand the EIF by extending it backward to 1940. The Historical Environmental Impacts Frame (HEIF) combines publicly available 1940 address information from the 1940 Decennial Census and the Census Bureau’s historical administrative data from 1970 through 1996 with historical environmental data (including information on air pollution, natural disasters and weather extremes). This paper discusses the creation of the HEIF as well as the unique challenges that arise with using the Census Bureau’s historical administrative data.
Farm Crisis and Marriageable Men: Change in Farm Tenure Mobility and Family Formation during the US Farm Crisis of the 1920s and 1930s
Abstract:
This paper evaluates how the U.S. farm crisis of the 1920s and 1930s undermined the traditional farm family by inhibiting movement up the farm tenure ladder from wage worker to tenant to owner. I exploit the geographical variation in the severity of the crisis, defined by dramatic drops in farm commodity prices, and use a shift-share instrument to measure how women responded to reduced farm family economic mobility through adjusted marriage rates, fertility, and off-farm labor force participation. I focus on regional and racial differences in tenure mobility that created heterogenous outcomes between white and Black women and on the interplay among the labor, marriage, and land markets as farm men’s “marriageability” fell. I find that white women were the most likely to adjust their marriage behavior as a result of the crisis, whereas Black women, whose access to tenure mobility was already greatly inhibited by racism, had less significant responses.