title: Have the poor always been less likely to migrate? Evidence from inheritance practices during the age of mass migration.
abstract: Using novel data on 50,000 Norwegian men, we study the effect of wealth on the probability of internal or international migration during the Age of Mass Migration (1850-1913), a time when the US maintained an open border to European immigrants. We do so by exploiting variation in parental wealth and in expected inheritance by birth order, gender composition of siblings, and region. We find that wealth discouraged migration in this era, suggesting that the poor could be more likely to move if migration restrictions were lifted today. We discuss the implications of these historical findings to developing countries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, Stanford University, 579 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, United States ; NBER, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States.
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Abramitzky
authors.affiliation: NBER, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States ; Department of Economics, UCLA, 8283 Bunche Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States.
authors.forename: Leah Platt
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Boustan
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, UCLA, 8283 Bunche Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Eriksson
keywords: 19th century; Childhood environment; Migration; Selection; Wealth