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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Guillaume Blanc; Romain Wacziarg |
| Abstract: | For most of human history, until the fertility transition, technological progress translated into larger populations, preventing sustained improvements in living standards. We argue that migration offered an escape valve from these Malthusian dynamics after the European discovery and colonization of the Americas. We document a strong relationship between fertility and migration across countries, regions, individuals, and periods, in a variety of datasets and specifications, and with different identification strategies. During the Age of Mass Migration, persistently high fertility across much of Europe created a large reservoir of surplus labor that could find better opportunities in the New World. These migrations, by relieving demographic pressures, accelerated the transition to modern growth. |
| Keywords: | migra0on, fertility, growth, Malthus |
| JEL: | F22 J13 N33 O11 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:allwps:0008 |
| By: | Åslund, Olof (Uppsala University, Uppsala Center for Labor Studies (UCLS), the Institute for Evaluation of Labor Market and Education Policy (IFAU), IZA, CReAM); Karimi, Arizo (Uppsala University, UCLS, IFAU); Sundberg, Anton (Uppsala University, UCLS, IFAU) |
| Abstract: | We present evidence that shared institutional and economic contexts may be at least as im portant as culturally rooted gender equality norms for the size of the motherhood penalty. Our study covers child migrants and children of immigrants in Sweden, and while the results point to a moderate but statistically robust negative association between source country gender equality and the labor market impact of motherhood, the overall picture is more one of similarity across highly diverse groups. All groups of mothers exhibit qual itatively comparable labor market trajectories following first childbirth, but penalties are somewhat greater among those descending from the most gender unequal societies. |
| Keywords: | Motherhood penalty; Cultural norms; Earnings inequality; |
| JEL: | J13 J15 J16 |
| Date: | 2025–02–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2025_001 |