Featuring
Sandra Sequeira
Lecturer in Development Economics, LSE
Discussant
Pierre-Louis Vezina
Lecturer in Economics, University of Birmingham
Host
Matt Collin
Research Fellow, CGD Europe
In this seminar, Sandra Sequeira (LSE) examined the long-run impact of migration on economic development. Along with her co-authors Nathan Nunn and Nancy Quian, she showed that the settlement of European migrants in the United States during the Age of Mass Migration (1860-1920) has had a persistent effect on income patterns today.
To isolate the impact of immigrants on economic development, they constructed an instrument that exploits the timing of the arrival of the migrants and the timing of the development railroads to predict patterns of migrant settlement. Countries with higher rates of historical migration have higher income, higher inequality, higher educational attainment and higher levels of urbanization today. They provided suggestive evidence on mechanisms of impact: the presence of immigrants was associated with higher rates of patenting and higher productivity in the manufacturing and retail sectors between 1860 and 1920.
The CGD Europe Sandwich Seminars bring some of the world's leading development scholars to discuss their new research and ideas. The presentations aim to met an academic standard of quality and are at times technical, and retain a focus on a mixed audience of researchers and policy-makers. A light lunch is provided.
