The Effect of Internal Migration on Local Labor Markets: American Cities During the Great Depression

Leah Platt Boustan, Price V. Fishback, Shawn E. Kantor

NBER Working Paper No. 13276
Issued in July 2007, Revised in August 2008
NBER Program(s):Development of the American Economy, Labor Studies

During the Great Depression, as today, migrants were accused of taking jobs and crowding relief rolls. At the time, protest concerned internal migrants rather than the foreign born. We investigate the effect of net migration on local labor markets, instrumenting for migrant flows to a destination with extreme weather events and variation in New Deal programs in typical sending areas. Migration had little effect on the hourly earnings of existing residents. Instead, migration prompted some residents to move away and others to lose weeks of work and/or access to relief jobs. Given the period's high unemployment, these lost work opportunities were costly to existing residents.

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w13276

Published: Leah Platt Boustan & Price V. Fishback & Shawn Kantor, 2010. "The Effect of Internal Migration on Local Labor Markets:American Cities during the Great Depression," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(4), pages 719-746, October. citation courtesy of

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