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A woman’s touch? Female migration and economic development in the United States

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  • Viola von Berlepsch
  • Andrés Rodríguez-Pose
  • Neil Lee

Abstract

Does the economic effect of immigrant women differ from that of immigrant men? This paper examines if gender has influenced the short- and long-term economic impact of mass migration to the United States, using census microdata from 1880 and 1910. By means of ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrumental variables (IV) estimations, the analysis shows that a concentration of immigrant women led to lower levels of development in US counties. However, immigrant women also shaped economic development positively, albeit indirectly, via their children. Communities with more children born to foreign mothers experienced greater growth than those dominated by children of foreign-born fathers or American-born parents.

Suggested Citation

  • Viola von Berlepsch & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Neil Lee, 2019. "A woman’s touch? Female migration and economic development in the United States," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(1), pages 131-145, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:53:y:2019:i:1:p:131-145
    DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2018.1463092
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    Cited by:

    1. Neil Lee & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2021. "Entrepreneurship and the fight against poverty in US cities," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(1), pages 31-52, February.
    2. von Berlepsch, Viola & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2019. "The missing ingredient: distance internal migration and its long-term economic impact in the United States," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 91716, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Viola Berlepsch, 2019. "Does Population Diversity Matter for Economic Development in the Very Long Term? Historic Migration, Diversity and County Wealth in the US," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(5), pages 873-911, December.
    4. Stojcic, Nebojsa & Bezic, Heri & Galovic, Tomislav, 2019. "Do we need more immigration? Socio-cultural diversity and export sophistication in EU 28 countries," MPRA Paper 108718, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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