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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.

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

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

  3. 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
  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. The Remittance Diaries (with Ryan Edwards, Tim Ogden, and Jonathan Morduch)

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

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