Farm mechanization on an otherwise ‘featureless’ plain: tractors on the Northern Great Plains and immigration policy of the 1920s

Immigration and the Economy of Cities and Regions

“…60 In places where it could not, immigration is associated with markers of a shift towards more laborintensive production techniques (from tractors to mules). The latter is consistent with evidence from the natural experiment of the U.S. shutting down immigration in the 1920s (Lew and Cater 2010). 61 Lafortune et al (2014) examine the impact of changes in skill ratios (share literate), induced by immigration, on the manufacturing sector between 1860 and 1940, using data tabulated from the Census of Manufactures to the county or city x industry level.…”

“…60 The industry mix result contrasts with modern findings that industry mix adjustments plays a trivial role in the absorption of immigration-driven skill mix changes (e.g., Lewis 2003;Card and Lewis 2007; Gonzales and Ortega 2011; Dustmann and Glitz forthcoming). 61 Lew and Cater (2010) examine agricultural counties on opposite either side of the Canada-U.S. border during the 1920s, when the U.S. shut down inflows of foreign workers. This is associated with a sharp uptick in labor-saving tractor use on the U.S. side of the border relative to the Canadian side, on what should be very similar agricultural land.…”

Mass Migration and Technological Change

“…There are a few studies that empirically investigate the effect of a change in the supply, or price, of an input on technological innovation and adoption (Popp, 2002;Acemoglu & Finkelstein, 2008;Lewis, 2011;Hanlon, 2015;Lafortune & González-Velosa., 2015;Aghion et al, 2016;Lew & Cater, 2018). In particular, some empirical studies link emigration to technological change in origin locations.…”

The Effects of Immigration on the Economy: Lessons from the 1920s Border Closure

“…Our paper contributes to a growing consensus that a loss of immigrant labor may not generate employment opportunities for native-born workers, as immigrants can be readily replaced with mechanization or automation in some industries. LaFortune, Tessada and González-Velosa (2015) and Lew and Cater (2018) show that the slowing of immigration in the early twentieth century hastened mechanization on American farms. Similarly, Hornbeck and Naidu (2014) find that southern planters responded to black out-migration by investing in farm capital, and Clemens, Lewis and Postel (2018) document the same following restrictions against Bracero farm workers.…”