Essays on the Economics of Immigration

This dissertation consists of three essays on the Economics of Immigration. In Chapter 1, I use historical Census data and an instrumental-variables approach to analyze the effect of WWI military service on the long-term outcomes of immigrants. The instrument reflects the likelihood of being drafted based on two characteristics: age at the time of the draft and being born in a country classified as an enemy of the U.S. during WWI. I find that foreign-born WWI veterans were more likely to become naturalized citizens and work in protective services, but veterans earned less after the war than their non-veteran peers. Chapter 2 analyzes the differences in schooling and labor market outcomes between U.S.-born and foreign-born siblings to understand the long-term effects of nativity. Children observed in the 1910 decennial Census are linked to their 1940 Census records using a unique method of linking individuals across Census waves. Compared to their native-born siblings, those born abroad are 10.5, 4.1, and 1.7 percentage points less likely to complete eighth grade, high school, and college respectively. I do not find a significant impact on wages, employment, and other labor market outcomes. The last chapter uses novel data on local television newscasts and agency-level arrest data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System from 2009 to 2016 to examine whether media coverage increases Hispanic-White arrest disparities. We find that news coverage increases ethnic arrest disparities for drug crimes but has no discernible impact on arrest differences for violent offenses.