Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T15:26:37.006Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Impact of Immigration on American Import Trade in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

James A. Dunlevy
Affiliation:
James A. Dunlevy is Professor, Department of Economics, and Affiliate, Program in International Studies, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056. E-mail: dunlevja@muohio.edu.
William K. Hutchinson
Affiliation:
William K. Hutchinson is Professor, Department of Economics, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056. E-mail: hutchiwk@ muohio.edu.

Abstract

Studies of the contemporary period for the United States and for Canada have established that the presence of an immigrant population is associated with an increase in trade between the immigrants' host and origin countries. We wish to discover if such a protrade phenomenon was systematically associated with the massive inflow of immigrants to the United States during the 40 years preceding World War I. Applying a gravity model to U.S. imports of 78 commodities from 17 countries at five-year intervals, we find support for a broad pro-import immigrant effect, especially for more fmished and more differentiated goods.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, James E.A Theoretical Foundation for the Gravity Equation.” American Eonomic Review 69, no. 1 (1979): 106–16.Google Scholar
Berstrand, Jeffrey H., “The Gravity Equation in International Trade: Some Microeconomic Foundations and Empirical Evidence”, Review of Economic and Ststistics, 67, no. 3 (1985): 474–81.Google Scholar
Berstrand, Jeffrey H., “The Genrealized Gravity Equation, Monopolistic Competition, and the Factor Proportions Theory of International Trade,” Review of Economics and Statistics 69, no.1 (1989): 143–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berstrand, Jeffrey H., “The Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson Model, the Linder Hypothesis and the Determinants of Bi;atea; Intra-Industry Trade,” Economic Journal 100, no. 403 (1990): 1216–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, John C.Imperfect Competition and Anglo-German Trade Rivalry: Markets for Cotton Textiles before 1914.” this JOURNAL 55, no. 2 (1995): 494527.Google Scholar
Collins, William J., O'Rourke, Kevin H., and G.Williamson, Jeffrey. “Were Trade and Factor Mobility Substitutes in History?” NBER Working Paper 6059, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cottrell, P. L.British Overseas Investment in the Nineteenth Century. London: Macmillan Press, Ltd., 1975.Google Scholar
Deardorff, Alan. “Determinants of Bilateral Trade: Does Gravity Work in a Classical World?” In Regionalization of the World Economy, edited by Frenkel, Jeffley A., 722. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Díaz-Alejandro, Carlos F.Essays on the Economic History of the Argentine Republic. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1970.Google Scholar
Douglas, Paul H.. “Is the New Immigration More Unskilled then the Old” Journal of the American Statical Association, n.s. 126, (06 1919): 393403.Google Scholar
Dunlevy, James A., and A. Gemery, Henry. “The Role of Migrant Stock and Lagged Migration in the Settlement Patterns of Nineteenth Century Immigrants”. Review of Economics and Statistics 59, no. 1 (1977): 137–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunlevy, James A., and A. Gemery, Henry. “Economic Opportunity and the Responses of ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Migrants to the United States,” this JOURNAL 38, no. 4 (1978): 901–17.Google Scholar
Dunley, James A., P.Saba, Richard. “The Role of Nationality-Specific Characteristics on the Settlement Patterns of Late Nineteenth Century Immigrants.” Explorations in Economic History 29, no. 2 (1992): 228–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eichengreen, Barry, and A. Irwin, Douglas. “Trade Blocs, Currency and the Reorientation of World Trade in the 1930s,” Journal of International Economics 38, no. 1–2. (1995): 124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fawcett, James T.Networks, Linkages, and Trade systems.” International Migration Review 23, no. 3 (1989): 671–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frenkel, Jeffrey A., Regional Trading Blocks in the World Economic System. Washington, DC: Institute for International Economics, 1997.Google Scholar
Gouls, David M.Immigrant Links to the Home Country: Empirical Implcations for U.S. Bilateral Trade Flows.” Review of Economics and Statistics 76, no. 2 (1994): 302–12.Google Scholar
Gould, J.D.European Inter-Continental Emigration: The Role of ‘Diffusion’ and ‘Feed back’,” Journal of European Economic History 9, no. 2 (1980): 267315.Google Scholar
Greenwood, Michael J.An Anaysis of the Determinants of Geographic Labor Mobility in the United States.” Review of Economic and Statistics 51, no. 2 (1968): 189–94.Google Scholar
Haveman, Jon, and Hummels, David. “What Can We Learn from Bilateral Trade? Gravity and Beyond.” Paper presented at the Conference on Empirical Investigations in International Trade, Purdue University, 11 1997.Google Scholar
Head, Keith, and Ries, John. “Immigration and Trade Creation: Econometric Evidence from Canada.” Canadian Journal of Economics 31, no. 1, (1998): 4762.Google Scholar
Hourwich, Isaac A.. Immigration and Labor. New York: G.P.Putnam's Sons, 1912. [Reprinted, 1969, Arno Press and the New York Times]Google Scholar
Hummels, David, and Levinsohn, James. “Monopolistic Competition and International Trade: Reconsidering the Evidence.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 110, (08 1995): 799836.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irwin, Douglas A.. “United States in a New Economy? A Century's Perspective.” American Economic Review 86, no. 2 (1996): 4146.Google Scholar
Isserlis, L.Tramp Shipping Cargoes and Freights.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 101, pt. 1, (1938): 304417.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Peter. A Guide to Econometrics. 3d ed.. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992. Landa, Janet Tai. Trust, Ethnicity, and Identity. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Linder, Staffan Burenstam. An Essay on Trade and Transformation. New York. John Wiley & Sons, 1961.Google Scholar
Lipsey, Robert E.. Price and Quantity Trends in the Foreign Trade of the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963.Google Scholar
Maddison, Angus. Dynamic Forces in Capitalist Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Maddison, Angus. Monitoring the World Economy, 1820–1992. Paris: Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and development, 1995.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S., Arango Graeme Hugo, Joaquin, et al. , “Theories of International Migration: A Review and AppraisalPopulation and Development Review 19, no. 3 (1993): 431–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markusen, James R.Factor Movements and Commodity Trade as Complements.” Journal of International Economics 14, no. 3–4 (1983): 341–56.Google Scholar
Mitchell, B.R.International Historical Statictics: Europe, 1750–1988 3d ed.New York: Stockton Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Mitchell, B.R.. International Historical Statistics: African, Asia and Oceania 1750–1988. 3d ed.New York: Stockton Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Mitchell, B.R.. International Historical Statistics: the American, 1750–1988. 2d ed.New york: Stockton Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Nelson, Phillip. “Migration, Real Income, and Information.” Journal of Regional Science 1, no. 1 (1959): 4373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rauch, James E.. “Trade and Search: Social Capital, Sogo Shosha, and Spillovers”. Manuscript. n.d. [1995].Google Scholar
Rauch, James E.Reconciling the Pattern of Trade with the Pattern of Migration”. American Economic Review 81, no. 4 (1994):775–96.Google Scholar
U.S.Department of Commerce. Historocal Ststistical of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970. Washington, Dc: GPO, 1989.Google Scholar
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1988. Washington, DC: GPO, 1989.Google Scholar
Wilcox, Walter F., With Imre Ferenczi. International Migrations, vol. 1: Statistics. New York: NBER, 1929. [Reprinted 1969, Gordon and Breach Scinece Publishers. New York].Google Scholar
Williamson, Jeffery G.. “The Evolution of Global Markets Since 1830: Background Evidence and Hypotheses”, Explorations in Economic Histry 32, no. 2 (1995): 141–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, Jeffery G.. American Growth and the Balance of Payments, 1820–1913: A Study of the Long Swing: Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Wong, K-Y, “Are International Trade and Factor Mobility Substitutes?,” Journal of International Economics 21, no. 1–2 (1986): 2543.Google Scholar