A MODEL OF SCANDINAVIAN EMIGRATION, 1870-1913

The period 1870-1913 witnessed mass emigration from Scandinavia, chiefly to the United States. There have been a number of time series econometric studies for individual countries but there has been no consensus on the relative importance of different variables driving emigration. This paper draws on new internationally comparable data to estimate a common model of migration for all three countries. The results indicate that the relative wage between home acid destination countries, relative employment rates, the stock of previous emigrants and demographic variables all contributed to the movements in emigration rates.