Immigration can have many, many effects, and I wish to comment on a single one of these possible effects: effect on wages. There was a large wave of immigration between 1890 and 1910 in America. In the raw data, not attempting any complex model to hold all things equal, wage rates didn’t fall. They actually rose. Of course, one can always argue that they would have risen even more had not the immigrants arrived. However, if we cannot see a negative effect in the raw data and we actually see the opposite, a rise, it’s unlikely that some omitted factor … Continue reading Immigration and Wages