2024/07/24 by Lawrence F. Katz · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Migration and Labor Dynamics #Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy #Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/00197939241264713
is the founder of the modern study of immigration, not just in economics but in quantitative social science.His work combines rigorous evidence with perceptive thinking about the decisions people make over whether and when to migrate, and the implications of these decisions for the economies of sending and receiving countries.No economist can escape the insights of George's scholarship-his insights extend well beyond the study of immigration to labor economics and more broadly to much of applied microeconomics.Indeed, one can find the seeds of the modern empirical revolution in George's work. 1 George is a scholar who combines two opposing features.In his major contributions, one encounters the new insights and polished work of a deliberate and thoughtful scholar.George does not jump into a topic and arrive at an answer right away.Rather, he cogitates; immerses himself in the data; thinks deeply about the economic decisions and constraints; and then comes up with a model that captures the relevant economic logic as simply and elegantly as possible, that helps one interpret the data, and that leads to new empirical predictions.One can see this approach in how George used the Roy model to incorporate self-selection into the analysis of immigration and assimilation.He wanted to get the economics right and did not delve into the data, beyond understanding the basic facts, before thinking through the mechanisms carefully.George waited for each new Census release to test his theories.The imperfections of the data and the slowness of the rate at which the data became available allowed George to sharpen his thinking.