by: Elior Cohen and Jeff Biddle
Download Article

RWP 22-12, September 2022; updated May 2024

The era of mass immigration into the US ended with the onset of WWI and the passage of restrictive immigration laws in the 1920s. To understand the impact of this disruption to immigration on low-skilled labor wages, we analyze newly digitized wage data from 1910 through 1929. The laws restricted immigration from certain countries more than others, which affected local labor markets differently. Our findings suggest that industries and regions with more exposure to these restrictions experienced larger reductions in immigration flows, leading to relatively higher wages for low-skilled labor during the 1920s.

JEL Classifications: J61, N31, N32

Article Citation

Related Research

  • Abramitzy, Ram, Philipp Ager, Leah Platt Boustan, Elior Cohen, and Casper Worm Hansen. Forthcoming. "The Effect of Immigration Restrictions on Local Labor Markets: Lessons from the 1920s Border Closure." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.

  • Price, Joseph, Christian vom Lehn, and Riley Wilson. 2020. “The Winners and Losers of Immigration: Evidence from Linked Historical Data." National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper no. 27156, May. Available at External Linkhttps://doi.org/10.3386/w27156

  • Tabellini, Marco. 2020. “Gifts of the Immigrants, Woes of the Natives: Lessons from the Age of Mass Migration." The Review of Economic Studies, vol. 87, no. 1, pp. 454–486. Available at External Linkhttps://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdz027

Author

Elior Cohen

Economist

Elior Cohen is an economist at the Economic Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. His research interests lie at the intersection of labor and public ec…

Read Bio