In the 1920s, the US government sharply restricted immigration inflows from countries in Eastern and Southern Europe. At the time, most immigrants from these countries had modest skills. Steve speaks to Stanford economist Ran Abramitzky about these immigration cutbacks, their effects on the earnings of US-born workers, and how the economy adapted.
Recorded on April 2, 2025.
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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Ran Abramitzky is the Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Economics, Senior Associate Dean of the Social Sciences at Stanford University, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. His studies economic history, with a focus on immigration and income inequality. His recent book with Leah Boustan, Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success (PublicAffairs 2022), was listed on The New Yorker's Best Books of 2022, Forbes' Best Business Books of 2022, and Behavioral Scientist's Notable Books of 2022.
Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.
RELATED SOURCES:
- The Effect of Immigrtion Restrictions on Local labor Markets: Lessons from the 1920s Border Closure by Ran Abramitzky, Philipp Ager, Leah Boustan, Elior Cohen and Casper W. Hansen, 2023.
- Streets of Gold: Immigration and the American Dream Over Two Centuries by Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan, 2022.
- The Long-run Impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act by Joe Long, Carlo Medici, Nancy Qian and Marco Tabellini, 2024.
- The Chinese Exclusion Act and Economic Development, Economics, Applied Podcast, 2025.
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