Data for: Cultural diversity and economic growth: Evidence from the US during the age of mass migration

Abstract of associated article: We exploit the large inflow of immigrants to the US during the 1870–1920 period to examine the effects that within-county changes in the cultural composition of the US population had on output growth. We construct measures of fractionalization and polarization to distinguish between the different effects of cultural diversity. Our main finding is that increases in cultural fractionalization significantly increased output, while increases in cultural polarization significantly decreased output. We address the issue of identifying the causal effects of cultural diversity by using the supply-push component of immigrant inflows as an instrumental variable.

关联研究论文摘要：本研究依托1870年至1920年美国移民大规模涌入的历史背景，探究美国各县域内部人口文化构成变化对产出增长的影响。我们构建了文化碎片化（cultural fractionalization）与文化极化（cultural polarization）两类测度指标，用以区分文化多样性的差异化影响效应。本研究核心结论为：文化碎片化程度提升会显著促进产出增长，而文化极化程度提升则会显著抑制产出增长。我们采用移民流入的供给推动型成分作为工具变量（instrumental variable），解决了文化多样性因果效应识别的关键问题。