AEA Papers and Proceedings
ISSN 2574-0768 (Print) | ISSN 2574-0776 (Online)
Where Are the Streets of Gold, and Why? A New Approach to Cross-Country Analysis and an Application to Immigrant Assimilation
AEA Papers and Proceedings
(pp. 1–19)
Abstract
Many big questions in social sciences concern cross-country differences, yet credible answers are difficult to establish. This lecture proposes a framework that uses cross-country analysis to narrow plausible mechanisms, followed by targeted causal studies. We apply this approach to immigrant assimilation, documenting strong upward mobility for children of immigrants in the Anglosphere, but weaker outcomes for sons in continental Europe. Gender and class patterns that vary across countries rule out explanations based on immigrant selection or destination countries’ immigration history, pointing instead to the potential role of differences in educational and vocational institutions between the Anglosphere and the Continent.Citation
Abramitzky, Ran, and Leah Boustan. 2026. "Where Are the Streets of Gold, and Why? A New Approach to Cross-Country Analysis and an Application to Immigrant Assimilation." AEA Papers and Proceedings 116: 1–19. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20261000Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
- I26 Returns to Education
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J62 Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
- K37 Immigration Law
- N30 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative
- Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification