A woman’s touch? Female migration and economic development in the United States

Does the economic effect of immigrant women differ from that of immigrant men? This paper examines if gender has influenced the short- and long-term economic impact of mass migration to the United States, using census microdata from 1880 and 1910. By means of ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrumental variables (IV) estimations, the analysis shows that a concentration of immigrant women led to lower levels of development in US counties. However, immigrant women also shaped economic development positively, albeit indirectly, via their children. Communities with more children born to foreign mothers experienced greater growth than those dominated by children of foreign-born fathers or American-born parents.