Combining detailed data on language and migration across colonial Indian districts in 1901 with a gravity model, Professor James Fenske of the University of Warwick and his co-authors find that origin and destination districts separated by more dissimilar languages saw less migration. They control for the physical distance between origin-destination pairs, several measures of dissimilarity in geographic characteristics, as well as origin and destination fixed effects. The results are robust to a regression discontinuity design that exploits spatial boundaries across language groups. They also find linguistic differences predict lower migration in 2001. In this Quantitative History Webinar, James will explore in detail how cultural channels account for only a small part of the link from linguistic diversity to lower migration. Rather, the evidence suggests communication and information channels are more important.

James Fenske’ co-authors: Latika Chaudhary (Naval Postgraduate School in California, U.S.A) and Yannick Dupraz (Paris Dauphine University)