Essays on Applied Historical Labour Economics

Abstract

The three papers in this thesis reflect original microdata collection and linking that improve how research can be done with historical labour data. In the first paper Zach Ward and I estimate the effect of age at arrival for immigrant outcomes with a new dataset of Ellis Island arrivals linked to the 1940 U.S. Census. Using within-family variation, we find that arriving at an older age, or having more childhood exposure to the European environment, led to a more negative wage gap relative to the native born. Infant arrivals had a positive wage gap relative to natives, in contrast to a negative gap for teenage arrivals. Therefore, a key determinant of immigrant outcomes during the Age of Mass Migration was the country of residence during critical periods of childhood development.

In the second paper Tim Hatton and I examine the votes that led to six British colonies federating to become the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. We analyse support for Federation using a new dataset of district-level voting records that we associate with a new dataset of district-level census characteristics. We find little support for the view that sectoral interests were important. On the other hand, we find greater support for Federation in districts with a greater share of migrants from outside the colony, among those further from the seats of colonial government, and with a greater share of females. Therefore, support for Federation seems to have been associated more with migration, distance, and possibly female suffrage, than with trade.

In the final, and sole-authored, paper I find that surname analysis suggests a low level of social mobility in Tasmania over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Specifically, newly constructed microdata records suggest that the levels of various markers of status between generations are persistent. Surnames are drawn from birth records, while status is signalled by membership of certain groups, such as being a parliamentarian or attending a certain school in the nineteenth century, and being awarded an Order of Australia or in the legal profession in the late twentieth century. Therefore, social status in Tasmania appears to be correlated over multiple generations. Show more