IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/0881.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Economic Foundations of East-West Migration During the Nineteenth Century

Author

Listed:
  • Richard H. Steckel

Abstract

This paper argues that latitude-specific investments in seeds and human capital provided an incentive for farmers to move along east-west lines. The incentives were greatest during the early and mid 1800s. Towards the end of the century migration patterns changed as farmers learned about farming in different environments, as settlement reached the Great Plains and beyond, and as farming declined in importance. Census manuscript schedules and Mormon family-group records form the basis for empirical work.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard H. Steckel, 1982. "The Economic Foundations of East-West Migration During the Nineteenth Century," NBER Working Papers 0881, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0881
    Note: DAE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w0881.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Larry A. Sjaastad, 1970. "The Costs and Returns of Human Migration," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Harry W. Richardson (ed.), Regional Economics, chapter 9, pages 115-133, Palgrave Macmillan.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lee, Chulhee, 2008. "Health, Information, and Migration: Geographic Mobility of Union Army Veterans, 1860–1880," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(3), pages 862-899, September.
    2. Joshua L Rosenbloom & William A Sundstrom, 2004. "The Decline And Rise Of Interstate Migration In The United States: Evidence From The Ipums, 1850–1990," Research in Economic History, in: Research in Economic History, pages 289-325, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    3. Marguerite Obolensky & Marco Tabellini & Charles Taylor, 2024. "Homeward Bound: How Migrants Seek Out Familiar Climates," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2401, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    4. Robert A. Margo, 1998. "Labor Market Integration Before the Civil War," NBER Working Papers 6643, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Sukkoo Kim, 2007. "Institutions and U.S. Regional Development: A Study of Massachusetts and Virginia," NBER Working Papers 13431, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Parman, John, 2012. "Good schools make good neighbors: Human capital spillovers in early 20th century agriculture," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 316-334.
    7. Joshua L. Rosenbloom, 1996. "The Extent of the Labor Market in the United States, 1850-1914," NBER Historical Working Papers 0078, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Scott A. Carson, 2007. "Health during Industrialization: Evidence from the 19th Century Pennsylvania State Prison System," CESifo Working Paper Series 1975, CESifo.
    9. Obolensky, Marguerite & Tabellini, Marco & Taylor, Charles A., 2024. "Homeward Bound: How Migrants Seek Out Familiar Climates," IZA Discussion Papers 16710, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Laila Touhami Morghem & Khawlah Ali Abdalla Spetan, 2020. "Determinants of International Migration: An Applied Study on Selected Arab Countries (1995-2017)," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 10(2), pages 6-19.
    2. Ather Maqsood Ahmed & Ismail Sirageldin, 1993. "Socio-economic Determinants of Labour Mobility in Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 139-157.
    3. David P. Lindstrom & Silvia E. Giorguli-Saucedo, 2007. "The interrelationship of fertility, family maintenance and Mexico-U.S. Migration," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 17(28), pages 821-858.
    4. Bryan A. Stuart & Evan J. Taylor, 2021. "Migration Networks and Location Decisions: Evidence from US Mass Migration," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 134-175, July.
    5. Kristiina Huttunen & Jarle Møen & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2018. "Job Loss and Regional Mobility," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(2), pages 479-509.
    6. Tineke Fokkema & Eralba Cela & Elena Ambrosetti, 2013. "Giving from the Heart or from the Ego? Motives behind Remittances of the Second Generation in Europe," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 539-572, September.
    7. Stark, Oded, 2021. "Reexamining the influence of conditional cash transfers on migration from a gendered lens: Comment," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 58(1), pages 379-381.
    8. Sari Pekkala, 2002. "Migration and Individual Earnings in Finland: A Regional Perspective," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1), pages 13-24.
    9. Martin Guzi & Martin Kahanec, 2023. "Welfare Migration," Discussion Papers 65, Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI).
    10. Longva, Pal, 2001. "Out-migration of immigrants : implications for assimilation analysis," Memorandum 04/2001, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    11. repec:rri:wpaper:200711 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Jim Millington, 2000. "Migration and Age: The Effect of Age on Sensitivity to Migration Stimuli," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(6), pages 521-533.
    13. Nil Demet Gungor & Aysıt Tansel, 2008. "Brain drain from Turkey: an investigation of students' return intentions," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(23), pages 3069-3087.
    14. Jaewon Lim & Changkeun Lee & Euijune Kim, 2015. "Contributions of human capital investment policy to regional economic growth: an interregional CGE model approach," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 55(2), pages 269-287, December.
    15. repec:rri:wpaper:200411 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Ben Klemens, 2022. "An analysis of US domestic migration via subset-stable measures of administrative data," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 351-382, May.
    17. World Bank, 2006. "World Development Report 2007," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 5989.
    18. Mika Haapanen & Jari Ritsilä, 2001. "Can migration decisions be affected by income taxation policies?," ERSA conference papers ersa01p41, European Regional Science Association.
    19. Battu, H. & Seaman, P.T & Sloane, P.J., "undated". "Are Married Women Spatially Constrained? A test of gender differentials in labour market outcomes," Working Papers 98-07, Department of Economics, University of Aberdeen.
    20. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Tobias D. Ketterer, 2012. "Do Local Amenities Affect The Appeal Of Regions In Europe For Migrants?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 535-561, October.
    21. Tiwari, Smriti, 2021. "Do macroeconomic fluctuations at destination matter in determining migrants’ return decisions?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    22. Silvia Maja Melzer & Ruud J. Muffels, 2012. "Migrant's Pursuit of Happiness: The Impact of Adaption, Social Comparison and Relative Deprivation; Evidence from a 'Natural' Experiment," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 448, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0881. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.