Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/202933 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
Working Papers No. 19-5
Publisher: 
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Boston, MA
Abstract: 
This paper examines the impact of migration on earnings inequality using 1940-2015 data from the U.S. census and American Community Survey. Despite measurement challenges, I successfully replicate existing findings regarding national trends in earnings inequality and migration, and subsequently analyze regional and state patterns. Using 1940 birthplace information to instrument for migration, I find that recent immigration mildly increases the top decile earnings share, while recent in-migration and out-migration have no significant effects on such inequality. I estimate that immigration contributed 5.8 percent to the observed rise in U.S. earnings inequality from 1950 to 2015, primarily through a non-migrant channel.
Subjects: 
migration
earnings inequality
JEL: 
R23
F22
D31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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