The Not-So-Hot Melting Pot: The Persistence of Outcomes for Descendants of the Age of Mass Migration
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 12,
no. 4, October 2020
(pp. 73-102)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
How persistent are economic gaps across ethnicities? The convergence of ethnic gaps through the third generation of immigrants is difficult to measure because few datasets include grandparental birthplace. I overcome this limitation with a new three-generational dataset that links immigrant grandfathers in 1880 to their grandsons in 1940. I find that the persistence of ethnic gaps in occupational income is 2.5 times stronger than predicted by a standard grandfather-grandson elasticity. While part of the discrepancy is due to measurement error attenuating the grandfather-grandson elasticity, mechanisms related to geography also partially explain the stronger persistence of ethnic occupational differentials.Citation
Ward, Zachary. 2020. "The Not-So-Hot Melting Pot: The Persistence of Outcomes for Descendants of the Age of Mass Migration." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 12 (4): 73-102. DOI: 10.1257/app.20170382Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J22 Time Allocation and Labor Supply
- J31 Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
- J51 Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
There are no comments for this article.
Login to Comment