Working Paper "The Labor Market Effects of Mexican Repatriations: Longitudinal Evidence from the 1930s" Co-authored by Giovanni Peri Posted on NBER

This paper examines the labor market consequences of an extensive campaign repatriating around 400,000 Mexicans in 1929-34. To identify a causal effect, it instruments county level repatriations with the existence of a railway line to Mexico interacted with the size of the Mexican communities in 1910. Using individual linked data it finds that Mexican repatriations reduced employment of native incumbent workers and resulted in their occupational downgrading. However, using a repeated cross section of county level data, it finds attenuated and non-significant employment effects and amplified wage downgrading. It shows that this is due to selective in- and out-migration of natives.