top of page

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
  1. Record Linkage For Character-Based Surnames: Evidence from Chinese Exclusion. Explorations in Economic History, 2023.

  2. 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
  1. Ghettoized in Gold Mountain? Chinese Immigrant Segregation in 19th Century California (Revise and Resubmit, Demography).

​​

In Progress
  1. Occupational Effects of Immigration Restrictions: Evidence from Chinese Exclusion.

  2. Beyond Exclusion: The Anti-Chinese Policy Database (with Beth Lew-Williams).

  3. Asian Immigration to the United States in Historical Perspective (with Gaurav Khanna).

I do fieldwork to break down the relationships between migration and economic development.

Migration and development

Peer-Reviewed Publications
  1. Deterring Emigration with Foreign Aid: An Overview of Evidence from Low-Income Countries (with Michael A. Clemens). Population and Development Review, 2018.

  2. Temporary work visas as US-Haiti development cooperation: a preliminary impact evaluation (with Michael A. Clemens). IZA Journal of Labor and Development, 2017.

  3. Moving beyond “China in Africa”: Insights from Zambian Immigration Data. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 2017.


Working Papers
  1. The Future of Mobility and Migration within and from Sub-Saharan Africa (with Loren B. Landau and Caroline Wanjiku Kihato).

 

In Progress
  1. Assessing African Migration Aspirations: A Conjoint Analysis.

  2. Labor Market Integration for Return Migrants in Honduras (with Adam Lichtenheld, Cynthia van der Werf, and Jessica Sadye Wolff).

  3. Dynamics of Displacement: Evidence from Iraq's War against ISIL (with Benjamin Crisman; sleeping paper).

bottom of page