Carlo Medici

Despite fluctuations in membership, labour unions remain pivotal in today’s economy. However, evidence regarding the forces behind the unions’ emergence and growth remains limited. This column examines how mass immigration from Europe to the US in the early 20th century shaped the rise of American labour unions. Immigration fostered the emergence of organised labour, especially among skilled workers. Low-skilled workers, however, struggled to sustain unions. Unionisation grew more prominently in counties that received immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe and in counties that displayed stronger anti-immigrant sentiment.

Mass #immigration from #Europe to the #US in the early 20th century shaped the rise of American labour #unions - especially among skilled workers. Additionally, unionisation grew more in counties that displayed more anti-immigrant sentiment.
@carlomedici.com #EconSky 📈📉
cepr.org/voxeu/column...

How Immigration Spurred the Early Twentieth-Century Rise of American Labor Unions - ProMarket New research from Carlo Medici shows how mass immigration to the United States in the early 20th century spurred union growth. Labor unions have long been core institutions in the labor markets of adv...

Thanks to @promarket.bsky.social for covering my paper!

I show that immigration fostered the emergence of modern US unions in the early 1900s, as incumbent workers joined and formed unions driven by both economic and social motivations.

Full paper here: tinyurl.com/bddrp6rv

How do unions and collective bargaining work around the world? And how do they affect the wage structure?

A new paper with Suresh Naidu and Benjamin Schoefer
@schoefer.bsky.social out NBER WP today and prepared for the Handbook of Labor Economics.

Thread below. 👇

The Impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act on the Economic Development of the Western U.S. Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

@nberpubs.bsky.social @voxeu.org @npr.org @planetmoney.bsky.social

You can find the full paper (with Joe Long, Nancy Qian, and Marco Tabellini) here:
www.nber.org/papers/w33019

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and American Labor Markets

Very exciting start to the month!

Our paper on the economic effects of the Chinese Exclusion Act was featured in:

- NBER's Digest (tinyurl.com/5n7ya9pk)

- VoxEU (tinyurl.com/yc7yyrk9)

- NPR's podcast (tinyurl.com/45559rws) and newsletter (tinyurl.com/ypndn99d)

The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act reduced economic opportunities for Chinese workers, but also for white and US-born workers. It lowered economic growth of the West for decades, from Joe Long, Carlo Medici, Nancy Qian, and Marco Tabellini https://www.nber.org/papers/w33019