November 2012

IZA DP No. 7049: The Labor Demand Was Downward Sloping: Disentangling Migrants' Inflows and Outflows, 1929-1957

published in: Economics Letters, 2013, 118 (3), 531–534

This paper studies in- and out-migration from the U.S. during the first half of the twentieth century and assesses how these flows affected state-level labor markets. It shows that out-migration positively impacted the wages of remaining workers, while in-migration had a negative impact. Hence, immigrant arrivals were substitutes of the existing workforce, while out-migration reduced the competitive pressure on labor markets.