What Drove the Mass Migrations from Europe in the Late Nineteenth Century?

This article examines the cross-country and intertemporal determinants of overseas migration from Europe in the late 19th century. Using a new real wage data base, the results support the pioneering work of Richard Easterlin: rates of natural increase in Europe and income gaps between Europe and overseas were both important, while any additional influence associated with industrialization was modest. The network effects of previous migrants were very strong. The upswing of the emigration cycle was dominated by the earlier stage of the demographic transition and industrialization, reinforced by the rising stock of migrants abroad. On the downswing of the cycle these forces ebbed and were increasingly dominated by the convergence of real wages in the Old World of real wages in the New. -Authors