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  • 2024
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

The Impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act on the Economic Development of the Western U.S.

By: Joe Long, Carlo Medici, Nancy Qian and Marco Tabellini
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:64
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Abstract

This paper investigates the economic consequences of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned immigration from China. The Act reduced the number of Chinese workers of all skill levels living in the United States. It also reduced the labor supply and the quality of jobs held by white and U.S.-born workers, the intended beneficiaries of the Act, and reduced manufacturing output. The results suggest that the Chinese Exclusion Act slowed economic growth in western states until at least 1940.

Keywords

Growth; Productivity; Economic Development; Business History; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Business and Government Relations; Prejudice and Bias; Government Legislation; Immigration; United States

Citation

Long, Joe, Carlo Medici, Nancy Qian, and Marco Tabellini. "The Impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act on the Economic Development of the Western U.S." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-008, August 2022. (Revised September 2024. Featured in Bloomberg, at Hoover Institute, VoxEU, NBER Digest, NPR, Forbes, The New Yorker, HBS Working Knowledge, and Cato Institute, quoted here.)
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About The Author

Marco E. Tabellini

Business, Government and the International Economy
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  • Economic Integration and the Transmission of Democracy By: Marco Tabellini and Giacomo Magistretti
  • Extractive Taxation and the French Revolution By: Tommaso Giommoni, Gabriel Loumeau and Marco Tabellini
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