We look at the effect of immigration shocks on native workers in a labor niche by testing how workers in the farm and nonfarm sectors were affected by the establishment of Russian Jewish agricultural colonies in southern New Jersey in the late nineteenth century. By following the same individuals across the 1880 and 1910 U.S. censuses, we avoid making assumptions about the substitutability of immigrants and native workers. Many native workers improved their occupational standing by transitioning to occupations complementary to agricultural and semiskilled factory work, the immigrants’ main niches. We see no impact on farmers, probably owing to the structure of agricultural markets. We also find a decreased probability of out-migration for natives living near an agricultural colony, with occupational upgrading concentrated among stayers.

Over the last several decades, the United States’ incarceration rate has steadily increased. By 2011, close to one percent of the adult population was experiencing some form of correctional supervision. Although incarcerated men are physically separated from their communities, their absence may still affect those who are left behind. Using the change in incarceration caused by a sentencing reform in North Carolina, together with an intensity of treatment research design, I show that incarceration policies have spillover effects on family formation patterns. In the wake of the policy change, unmarried, and young black women reduce or delay their fertility, and the composition of births shifted towards women of higher socioeconomic status. At the same time, I find that among those who gave birth, the quality of partner matches decline. The probability of marriage declines for white women, but I observe no effect for black women.

The nineteenth-century American family experienced tremendous demographic, economic, and institutional changes. By using birth order effects as a proxy for family environment, and linked census data on men born between 1835 and 1910, we study how the family’s role in human capital production evolved over this period. We find firstborn premiums for occupational outcomes, marriage, and fertility that are similar across census waves. Our results indicate that the returns to investments in the family environment were stable over a long period.

The nineteenth-century American family experienced tremendous demographic, economic, and institutional changes. By using birth order effects as a proxy for family environment, and linked census data on men born between 1835 and 1910, we study how the family’s role in human capital production evolved over this period. We find firstborn premiums for occupational outcomes, marriage, and fertility that are similar across census waves. Our results indicate that the returns to investments in the family environment were stable over a long period.