What is the role of access to land for the decision to emigrate? We consider the case of Denmark between 1868 and 1908, when a large number of people left for America. We exploit the fact that the Danish agrarian reforms between 1784 and 1807 had differential impacts on the class of landless laborers around the country, and use detailed parish-level data police protocols of emigrants; population censuses and land registers to show that areas with a more unequal distribution of land witnessed greater emigration. We demonstrate a sizable effect: a one standard deviation increase in the Theil index implies an increase in emigration of 18 percent above the mean.

获得土地对于移民决定的作用是什么？我们考虑 1868 年至 1908 年间丹麦的情况，当时有大量人口前往美国。我们利用 1784 年至 1807 年间丹麦土地改革对全国无地劳工阶层产生不同影响这一事实，并使用详细的教区级移民数据警察协议；人口普查和土地登记表明，土地分配更不平等的地区出现了更多的移民。我们证明了一个相当大的影响：Theil 指数每增加一个标准差就意味着移出人口比平均值高出 18%。