Ye Yuan (@ye-yuan.bsky.social)

The impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act on the economic development of the Western US Immigration is one of today’s most controversial policy issues. A recurrent concern is that immigrants are taking the jobs of native workers, leading many governments to consider restrictions and even deportations. This column examines the impact of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which effectively shut down Chinese immigration to the US for more than 80 years, on economic growth and labour markets. The authors find that the Act reduced the labour supply and the earnings growth of native-born workers, and slowed down manufacturing output and economic growth in the US West, with effects that persisted until at least 1940. https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/impact-chinese-exclusion-act-economic-development-western-us