DISCRIMINATION, MIGRATION, AND ECONOMIC OUTCOMES: EVIDENCE FROM WORLD WAR I

Andreas Ferrara, Price Fishback

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper examines the individual and aggregate costs of ethnic discrimination. Studying Germans in the United States during World War I, an event that abruptly downgraded their previously high social standing, we show that anti-German sentiment was strongly associated with counties’ casualties in the war, leading to subsequent outmigration of Germans. Such relocation to evade discrimination was costly for German workers. However, counties with larger outflows of Germans, who tended to be welltrained manufacturing workers, incurred economic costs too, including a drop in average annual manufacturing wages of 0.6% to 2.2%. This effect lasted at least until 1930.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1201-1219
Number of pages19
JournalReview of Economics and Statistics
Volume106
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 6 2024

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Economics and Econometrics

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