The Earnings of American Jewish Men: Human Capital, Denomination and Religiosity

Abstract

This paper analyzes the determinants of the earnings of American Jewish men using the 2000/01 National Jewish Population Survey. Non-response to the question on earnings is analyzed. Earnings are related to conventional human capital variables, as well as Jewishspecific variables. Except for the size of place and region variables, the standard human capital variables have similar effects for Jews and the general population. Jewish day schooling as a youth enhances earnings. Earnings vary by denomination, with Conservative Jews earning the most. The effect on earnings of religiosity (measured by synagogue attendance) is not monotonic. Earnings are highest for those who attend only once a week.

The Multidimensional Effects of Religion on Socioeconomic Development: A Review of the Empirical Literature

“…While these causal mechanisms have been repeatedly discussed in the literature, there is an absence of empirical tests confronting different causal mechanisms. The standard procedure is to look at an outcome variable like earnings and use a dummy variable indicating religious denomination as an explanatory variable, sometimes complemented by a measure of religiosity or frequency of religious practice (Chiswick and Huang, ; Kortt and Dollery, ). Therefore, it is unclear how observed differences come about.…”

“…The literature on labor market discrimination of Jews and Catholics mainly draws on data from the USA and is not covered in detail herein due to space constraints. However, most studies report that Jews and Catholics have a significant advantage over other religious denominations in the U.S. labor market after controlling for education and other wage determinants (e.g., Chiswick and Huang, ; Wallace et al ., ). The underlying motives or whether this is related to the minority status of these two groups is unclear.…”

Nonfinancial employment commitment among Muslims and Jews in Israel: examination of the core–periphery model on majority and minority groups

“…These include the Methodists and Baptists in the United States from the end of the 17th to the mid-18th century and American Jews to this day. While latter's success is attributed to their high levels of human capital, mainly education (Chiswick and Huang, 2008), the underdevelopment of the economy in Islamic countries in the Middle East compared to Western countries is attributed mainly to Islamic laws and traditions that hamper modernization (Kuran, 2004).…”

Are the Religiously Observant Discriminated Against in the Rental Housing Market? Experimental Evidence from Israel

“…Also related to this work in the sense of examining differentials in economic outcomes between Jewish subjects, Chiswick and Huang () examine earnings differentials across degree of religiosity among American Jews. Running wage regressions, they find an inverted U‐shaped relationship between religiosity and earnings after controlling for observable characteristics, including education.…”