Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: An Economic Analysis of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund

经济学博士论文研究：永久移民基金的经济学分析

• 批准号: 0527777
• 负责人: George Boyer
• 金额: $ 1.11万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-08-01 至 2006-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0527777&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Economics; Economic

This project will estimate the impact of financial assistance from America, in the form of prepaid passage, on the timing of emigration in the nineteenth century from the British Isles to the Western United States.MethodsThis research uses records of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company (PEF) and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as Mormons or Latter-day Saints) to create a sample of nineteenth century immigrants from the U.K. to present-day Utah. The sample will be representative of other nineteenth century migrants to the western frontier both in age, household structure, and occupation. These immigrants tended to be older and better skilled than their contemporaries who stayed in the eastern U.S. They were also more likely to be married and travel with children. Individual-level records, linked as households, will include information on each emigrant's birth year, region of origin, pre-emigration occupation, and year of baptism, as well as the amount of financial assistance received, if any. For Mormons in the eighteen hundreds, baptism indicated not only conversion to a new faith but also commitment to relocate to Utah. PEF loans were similar to informal agreements between people desiring to emigrate and their family members already in the U.S. Passage, prepaid in the U.S., was offered as an informal loan to be repaid after settling. Cross-sectional and panel data techniques will be used to determine whether the receipt of financial assistance tended to hasten emigration, in other words to shorten the delay between baptism and emigration. Tobit analysis will be used to estimate the factors affecting loan receipt.Intellectual MeritThis research makes two major contributions to the existing literature. One, this research will go beyond a discussion of general trends and summary statistics to estimate the effect prepaid passage had on individuals and households. This is possible because of the unusually detailed records of who received financial aid and how much they received. Two, the study of Latter-day Saint records provides a unique look at an interesting subset of nineteenth century immigrants to the U.S.: people traveling as families. The records can beused to test the hypothesis proposed by Ferrie in Yankees Now (Oxford University Press, 1999) that larger families tended to move west because they were wealthier. Broader ImpactsThis research is related to a variety of historical and modern institutions, including chain migration, refugee resettlement, student loans, and micro-lending. For example, the Perpetual Education Fund, modeled after the PEF, was established in 2001 to provide student loans for disadvantaged individuals in developing countries.

该项目将评估美国以预付旅费形式提供的财政援助的影响，19世纪从不列颠群岛移民到美国西部的时间。方法本研究使用永久移民基金公司（PEF）和耶稣基督后期圣徒教会的记录（也被称为摩门教或后期圣徒）创造一个样本的十九世纪移民从英国。到现在的犹他州。样本将代表其他世纪移民到西部边境的年龄，家庭结构和职业。这些移民往往比留在美国东部的同龄人年龄更大，技能更高，他们也更有可能结婚并带着孩子旅行。个人一级的记录与家庭联系在一起，将包括每个移民的出生年份、原籍地区、移民前的职业和受洗年份以及所获得的财政援助数额等信息。对于19世纪的摩门教徒来说，洗礼不仅意味着皈依新的信仰，而且还意味着要迁往犹他州。PEF贷款类似于希望移民的人和他们已经在美国的家庭成员之间的非正式协议。是作为一种非正式贷款提供的，在定居后偿还。将使用横截面和面板数据技术来确定接受财政援助是否会加速移民，换句话说，是否会缩短洗礼和移民之间的延迟。Tobit分析将被用来估计影响贷款收据的因素。智力MeritThis研究作出了两个主要贡献，现有的文献。首先，这项研究将超越一般趋势和汇总统计数据的讨论，以估计预付费对个人和家庭的影响。这是可能的，因为有异常详细的记录，记录了谁得到了财政援助，以及他们得到了多少。第二，对后期圣徒记录的研究提供了一个独特的视角，可以看到19世纪世纪移民到美国的一个有趣的子集：人们像家人一样旅行。这些记录可以用来检验费里在《现在的洋基》（牛津大学出版社，1999年）一书中提出的假设，即大家庭倾向于向西迁移，因为他们更富有。更广泛的影响这项研究涉及各种历史和现代制度，包括连锁移民，难民安置，学生贷款和小额贷款。例如，2001年设立了仿效永久教育基金的永久教育基金，为发展中国家的弱势个人提供学生贷款。