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Marriott Marquis, Grand Ballroom 3
Hosted By:
American Economic Association
Immigration and Assimilation
Paper Session
Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (PDT)
- Chair: Leah Boustan, Princeton University
Rationing As a Determinant of Immigrant Composition and Outcomes
Abstract
Willingness to migrate is a necessary but not sufficient condition for migration from an origin to destination country. For the United States and other countries with an excess supply of immigrants, the slot rationing rule is a key determinant of immigrant composition not captured by supply-based models. A stylized rationing based model better explains the attainment of immigrants in both the US and Sweden with the model’s two variables explaining over 50% of the variation in origin country education attainment and earnings.Discrimination and the Returns to Cultural Assimilation in the Age of Mass Migration
Abstract
We document that, in the early twentieth century, children of immigrants who were given more foreign first names completed fewer years of schooling, earned less, and married less assimilated spouses. However, we find few differences in the adult outcomes of brothers who were given more foreign versus more American-sounding first names. This pattern suggests that the negative association between ethnic names and adult outcomes in this era did not stem from discrimination on the basis of first names (although teachers and employers may have discriminated using other ethnic cues), but instead reflects household differences associated with cultural assimilation.Discussant(s)
Michael Clemens
,
Center for Global Development
JEL Classifications
- J1 - Demographic Economics