Why the Settlers Soared: The Dynamics of Immigration and Economic Growth in the “Golden Age” for Settler Societies

Abstract

Settler societies are created by migration. The major settler societies were initially founded by people who established economic, political, and social structures conducive to economic growth. This chapter argues that they were beneficiaries of the massive waves of emigration from Europe in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The “golden age” for settler societies was the mass migration of peoples and the massive flows of investment out of Europe and into the Settlers. The chapter suggests that mass immigration boosted settler societies' rate of economic growth and helped to sustain their high levels of per capita income in spite of the large increase in population they helped to generate. Four factors made settler economies attractive to immigrants: natural resource abundance, favorable institutions, growth-oriented government policy, and universal education. The reorganization of the world economic order following World War I brought an end to a “veritable golden age for world farmers.”. Keywords:economic growth; immigration; mass migration; per capita income; settler economies; settler societies