Since the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the so-called New World in 1492, hundreds of thousands of Spaniards settled in Central and South America. This paper assesses the skill selectivity of Spanish migrants who went to Hispanic America during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries for the first time. The age-heaping method is employed to estimate numeracy levels as a proxy for human capital. With a database of 33 929 individual observations, the findings show that Spaniards who left the country to settle in the Spanish territories were positively self-selected. Additionally, differences are observed in the human capital of those who chose to settle in Mexico, who had a higher level of numeracy, than those who chose Peru. These differences might be due to the viceroyalty structure and educational institutions that encouraged the emigration of people with greater human capital to Mexico. Finally, when the level of numeracy of Spaniards in Hispanic America is compared with the numeracy of the total population, emigrants still had higher levels of human capital.

中文翻译：

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美国殖民地西班牙移民的算术选择性（十六至十八世纪）

自 1492 年克里斯托弗·哥伦布抵达所谓的新大陆以来，数十万西班牙人在中美洲和南美洲定居。本文评估了 16 至 18 世纪首次前往拉美裔美洲的西班牙移民的技能选择性。采用年龄堆积法来估计计算能力水平作为人力资本的代理。通过包含 33,929 个个人观察的数据库，调查结果表明，离开祖国到西班牙领土定居的西班牙人是积极自我选择的。此外，选择定居墨西哥的人的人力资本也存在差异，他们的算术水平高于选择秘鲁的人。这些差异可能是由于总督辖区结构和教育机构鼓励拥有更多人力资本的人移民到墨西哥。最后，当将拉美裔西班牙人的算术水平与总人口的算术水平进行比较时，移民的人力资本水平仍然较高。