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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 immigrants in general? This paper examines if gender has influenced the short- and long-term economic impact of mass migration to the US, using Census microdata from 1880 and 1910. By means of ordinary least squares and instrumental variable estimations, the analysis shows that a greater concentration of immigrant women is significantly associated with lower levels of economic 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 and that successfully managed to integrate female immigrants experienced greater economic growth than those dominated by children of foreign-born fathers or American-born parents.

Suggested Citation

  • Viola von Berlepsch & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Neil Lee, 2018. "A woman's touch? Female migration and economic development in the United States," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1815, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Apr 2018.
    • Handle: RePEc:egu:wpaper:1815
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    References listed on IDEAS

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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

    Keywords

    Gender; migration; economic growth; development; counties; US;
    All these keywords.

    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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