2008/12/01 by Karen Clay, Randall S. Jones · 1 citation
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Historical Economic and Social Studies #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies #Census #Gold rush #Geography #Sample (material) #Population #State (computer science) #Literacy #Public use #Demography #Genealogy #Demographic economics #History #Political science #Economic growth #Economics #Sociology #Archaeology #Law
paper · doi:10.1017/s002205070800079x
openalex publication_date 2008/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/23
Gold discoveries in 1848 set off a large and extremely rapid migration to California. This article uses newly collected data from the 1850 and 1852 Censuses of Population together with the public use sample of the 1850 Census of Population to examine who went to California and how they did economically. We find that the propensity to migrate was affected by the individual's age and literacy, distance of the state from California, and average state latitude. Consistent with the historical literature, we find that economic outcomes were generally small or even zero for miners but were positive and large for nonminers.