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  • 2020
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Happily Ever After: Immigration, Natives' Marriage and Fertility

By: Michela Carlana and Marco Tabellini
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:37
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Abstract

We study the effects of immigration on natives’ marriage, fertility, and family formation across U.S. cities between 1910 and 1930 using a shift-share design. We find that natives living in cities that received more immigrants were more likely to marry, have kids, and leave the parental house earlier. Our evidence suggests that the positive impact of immigration on native men’s employment, which increased the supply of native “marriageable men," contributed to generate these patterns. Instead, alternative channels—changes in sex ratios, natives’ cultural reactions, and economic competition for native women—are unlikely to, alone, explain our results.

Keywords

Immigration; Demography; Urban Scope; Household; Employment; History; Outcome or Result; United States

Citation

Carlana, Michela, and Marco Tabellini. "Happily Ever After: Immigration, Natives' Marriage and Fertility." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-004, July 2018. (Revised November 2020. Winner of European Economic Association Young Economist Award, 2018. IZA (Institute of Labor Economics) Discussion Paper Series, No. 11467, April 2018)
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About The Author

Marco E. Tabellini

Business, Government and the International Economy
→More Publications

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