Mass Emigration and Human Capital over a Century : Evidence from the Galician Diaspora

This paper examines the effects of emigration on human capital accumulation at origin throughout a century. I focus on the mass emigration from Galicia (Spain) to Latin America (1900-1930), one of the largest emigration episodes at the time. I construct a database of all Galician municipalities combining newly-digitized historical data with contemporary sources and exploit variation in pioneering emigration and a pull factor for identification. I find that while emigration depressed literacy rates at origin in the short run, its impact became positive after one decade and led to gains in human capital that persist until these days. I explore several channels and provide evidence of two novel mechanisms through which emigration can raise human capital in the long run. Galician migrants funded associations that financed the construction of schools in their hometowns and diffused norms conducive to a persistent change in beliefs about the value of education