Labor Migration and Economic Growth : A Case Study of Puerto Rico

The chief goal of this study is to examine the effectiveness of emigration as a tool in aiding the economic growth of the less developed and overpopulated countries. The specific effects of emigration upon economic development—reduced size and possibly improved quality of the labor force, decreased birth rate and population growth, prevention of increased unemployment, rapid growth of output, and so on—are analyzed, and are shown to have had a profound impact on economic growth in Puerto Rico from 1946 to 1960.

The author chose Puerto Rico for this empirical analysis because it possesses many characteristics of a typical underdeveloped nation. The study, therefore, may have application for many of the less developed countries in the world today.

The high standards of research and analysis apparent in this work make it a unique and valuable contribution to its field. Economists and labor specialists will, of course, be interested in this book, while international agencies concerned with economic development and those specifically interested in the labor and economic problems of Puerto Rico will find this a basic work.