About fifty-five million Europeans migrated to the New World between 1850 and 1914. This was an unprecedented migration that marked a profound shift in the distribution of global population and economic activity.

In The Age of Mass Migration: An Economic Analysis, Timothy J. Hatton and Jeffrey G. Williamson document this exodus and analyze its causes and effects. Their comprehensive study explores several key areas of inquiry that are still contested today, such as: Why did a nation's emigration rate typically rise with early industrialization? How did immigrants choose their destinations? Were international labor markets segmented? How successfully did migrants assimilate in host country labor markets?

Did immigrants "rob" jobs from locals? Did emigration improve the lot of those left behind? The authors, both eminent economic historians, confront these questions in fresh ways. They consider existing debates in light of contemporary evidence and open new lines of inquiry. Above all, they argue that mass migration made an important contribution to the striking convergence of living standards between poor and rich countries in the West.