TY - JOUR

T1 - Birthplace Diversity and Economic Growth: Evidence from the US States in the Post-World War II Period

AU - Vasilakis, Chrysovalantis

AU - Docquier, Frederic

AU - Turrati, Riccardo

AU - Valette, Jerome

N1 - This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Journal of Economic Geography following peer review. The version of record Frédéric Docquier, Riccardo Turati, Jérôme Valette, Chrysovalantis Vasilakis, Birthplace diversity and economic growth: evidence from the US states in the Post-World War II period, Journal of Economic Geography, lbz016 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbz016.

PY - 2020/3

Y1 - 2020/3

N2 - This paper empirically investigates the impact of birthplace diversity on economic growth. We use panel data on US states over the 1960-2010 period. This rich data set allows us to better deal with endogeneity issues and to conduct a large set of robustness checks. Our results suggest that diversity among college-educated immigrants positively aﰃects economic growth. We provide converging evidence pointing at the existence of skill complementarities between workers trained in diﰃerent countries. These synergies result in better labor market outcomes for native workers and in higher productivity in the R&D sector. The gains from diversity are maximized when immigrants originate from economically or culturally distant countries (but not both), and when they ac- quired part of their secondary education abroad and their college education in the US. Overall, a 10% increase in high-skilled diversity raises GDP per capita by about 6%. On the contrary, low-skilled diversity has insigniﰄcant eﰃects.

AB - This paper empirically investigates the impact of birthplace diversity on economic growth. We use panel data on US states over the 1960-2010 period. This rich data set allows us to better deal with endogeneity issues and to conduct a large set of robustness checks. Our results suggest that diversity among college-educated immigrants positively aﰃects economic growth. We provide converging evidence pointing at the existence of skill complementarities between workers trained in diﰃerent countries. These synergies result in better labor market outcomes for native workers and in higher productivity in the R&D sector. The gains from diversity are maximized when immigrants originate from economically or culturally distant countries (but not both), and when they ac- quired part of their secondary education abroad and their college education in the US. Overall, a 10% increase in high-skilled diversity raises GDP per capita by about 6%. On the contrary, low-skilled diversity has insigniﰄcant eﰃects.

UR - https://oup.silverchair-cdn.com/oup/backfile/Content_public/Journal/joeg/20/2/10.1093_jeg_lbz016/2/lbz016_supplementary_data.pdf?Expires=1618056425&Signature=zvcza3YYGM79Mm7A1L6fYRWII~jrp6R-db7ImHU7QfcIujG-dnSaSyZN9yOthfinv27zYjUXaMcqmwxlGfMOAUzUEdu~W3HAwNdM48GODSp7jKh~Wcf3PlJnBu3z0gxvg7YJGwh46vVmGCtBp8D3XpGq-wntqRvuyjrgDH9pav6HM2dgxo~XfIn2WVBTvT6g9l92XvuDJ1S3LFbcOyfPZFXGAkXUAXFbjMzPyLXAJI2QsHMV3WzB8tpaJ9Qkq70la9Aohu2j1vWLuDrXPdF8t1orA4ejzvrRTgC2iCjfJ1elbYjEWCHiDqp2Z3JjbL3ERtDjeAA6NldKUlnLMYC~Cg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIE5G5CRDK6RD3PGA

U2 - 10.1093/jeg/lbz016

DO - 10.1093/jeg/lbz016

M3 - Article

VL - 20

SP - 321

EP - 354

JO - Journal of Economic Geography

JF - Journal of Economic Geography

IS - 2

ER -