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Immigration and the Canadian Earnings Distribution in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2016

Alan G. Green  and
David A. Green
Alan G. Green
Affiliation:
Alan G. Green was Professor Emeritus, deceased 3 November 2010, Department of Economics, Queen's University.
David A. Green
Affiliation:
David A. Green is Professor, Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia and International Research Fellow, IFS, 997-1973 East Mall Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z1. E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

We use newly available micro-data from the 1911 to 1941 Canadian Censuses to investigate the impact of immigration on the Canadian earnings distribution in the first half of the twentieth century. We show that Canadian inequality rose sharply in the inter-war years, particularly in the 1920s, coinciding with two of the largest immigration decades in Canadian history. We find that immigration was not the main force driving changes in the earnings distribution. This results from a combination of self-selection by immigrants, occupational adjustments after arrival, and general equilibrium adjustments in the economy.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 76 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 387 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2016 

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Footnotes

We are grateful to Herb Emery for providing us with wage series he collected from the Labour Gazette and for several useful conversations about this paper. We benefited from useful conversations with Mary Mackinnon and with participants at the 2005 CNEH meetings and the 2006 TARGET meetings.

References

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