I study migration policy past and present.
I use novel archival data and computational methods to assess the effects and effectiveness of historical immigration policies.
Historical immigration policy restrictions
Peer-Reviewed Publications
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Record Linkage For Character-Based Surnames: Evidence from Chinese Exclusion. Explorations in Economic History, 2023.
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Immigration Restrictions as Active Labor Market Policy: Evidence from the Mexican Bracero Exclusion (with Michael A. Clemens and Ethan G. Lewis). American Economic Review, 2018.
Working Papers
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Ghettoized in Gold Mountain? Chinese Immigrant Segregation in 19th Century California.
In Progress
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The Effects of Immigration Restrictions: Evidence from Chinese Exclusion.
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Beyond Exclusion: The Anti-Chinese Policy Database (with Beth Lew-Williams).
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Nuisance Laws as Local Social Control (with Sebastian Saling).
I do fieldwork to break down the relationships between migration and economic development.
Migration and development
Peer-Reviewed Publications
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Deterring Emigration with Foreign Aid: An Overview of Evidence from Low-Income Countries (with Michael A. Clemens). Population and Development Review, 2018.
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Temporary work visas as US-Haiti development cooperation: a preliminary impact evaluation (with Michael A. Clemens). IZA Journal of Labor and Development, 2017.
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Moving beyond “China in Africa”: Insights from Zambian Immigration Data. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 2017.
Working Papers
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The Future of Mobility and Migration within and from Sub-Saharan Africa (with Loren B. Landau and Caroline Wanjiku Kihato).
In Progress
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Assessing African Migration Aspirations: A Conjoint Analysis
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The Remittance Diaries (with Ryan Edwards, Tim Ogden, and Jonathan Morduch)
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Dynamics of Displacement: Evidence from Iraq's War against ISIL (with Benjamin Crisman)