The Fluidity of Race:  “Passing” in the United States, 1880-1940

Nix, Emily; Qian, Nancy

doi:10.3386/w20828

Cited by 37 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…At the same time, research indicates that minorities do exercise their option of assimilating to avoid discrimination. "Passing" for white was a strategy for improving one's economic situation that was sometimes employed among blacks in the US during the Jim Crow era (Mill and Stein 2016;Nix and Qian 2015;Saperstein and Penner 2012). Immigrants during the era of mass migration Americanized their names and in so doing achieved better labor market outcomes, a fact that implies that there was a penalty on foreign-sounding names (Biavaschi, Giulietti, and Siddique 2017).…”

Section: Discrimination and Assimilationmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Do Immigrants Respond to Discrimination? The Case of Germans in the US During World War I

Fouka

2019

Am Polit Sci Rev

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I study the effect of taste-based discrimination on the assimilation decisions of immigrant minorities. Do discriminated minority groups increase their assimilation efforts in order to avoid discrimination and public harassment or do they become alienated and retreat in their own communities? I exploit an exogenous shock to native attitudes, anti-Germanism in the United States during World War I, to empirically identify the reactions of German immigrants to increased native hostility. I use two measures of assimilation efforts: naming patterns and petitions for naturalization. In the face of increased discrimination, Germans increase their assimilation investments by Americanizing their own and their children’s names and filing more petitions for US citizenship. These responses are stronger in states that registered higher levels of anti-German hostility, as measured by voting patterns and incidents of violence against Germans.

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Section: Discrimination and Assimilationmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Do Immigrants Respond to Discrimination? The Case of Germans in the US During World War I

Fouka

2019

Am Polit Sci Rev

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“…Something similar occurred in the USA. Nix & Qian (2015) report that 20% of black men "passed" as whites during the 1880-1960 period, probably motivated by better social, political and economic opportunities. Antman & Duncan (2015) present evidence from more recent years (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011).…”

Section: Racial Aspects In Brazilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of discrimination by preference in Brazil

Hirata¹

2017

Econ. Aplic.

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Este artigo testa implicações do modelo de discriminação por preferência de Becker (1957). Utilizando dados brasileiros, rejeita-se a hipótese de que o hiato salarial entre brancos e negros seja determinado pelo nível médio de discriminação. Os resultados mostram que o hiato está relacionado ao grau de discriminação do empregador marginal, isto é, aquele que mais discrimina entre os que contratam negros. Além disso, os resultados estão de acordo com a previsão de que o hiato salarial é maior em lugares com maior proporção de negros no mercado de trabalho, ou seja, onde há mais interação social entre raças. Palavras-chave: Discriminação racial; Hiato salarial; Modelo de discriminação do empregador; Brasil AbstractThis paper tests Becker's model of preference discrimination. Using Brazilian data, we reject the hypothesis that the black-white conditional wage gap is determined by the average degree of employers' prejudice. Instead, we show that the racial wage gap is related to the degree of prejudice of the marginal employer, i.e., the employer who most discriminates among those who hire blacks. We also found that the wage gap is positively correlated with the proportion of blacks in the labor market, which means that blacks are more discriminated where there is more social interaction among races.

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“…For causal inference it is critical that each household be potentially exposable to any of the causes (Holland, 1986) and race or ethnicity is not a choice or a manipulable action in general. Nix and Qian (2015) find that race change in US was a widespread phenomenon between 1880 and 1940, responding to strong social, economic and political incentives for Blacks to "pass" for Whites. Liebler et al (2014) note that the measure of the ethnic savings gap based on self-reported ethnicity rather than on the birthplace of the individual and his ancestors may be overestimated if the better off, higher-generation Hispanics do no self-identify as such (Duncan and Trejo, 2011).…”

Section: Empirical Applicationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Ethnic and racial disparities in saving behavior

Borgo

2018

J Econ Inequal

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte.La serie de Documentos de Investigación del Banco de México divulga resultados preliminares de trabajos de investigación económica realizados en el Banco de México con la finalidad de propiciar el intercambio y debate de ideas. El contenido de los Documentos de Investigación, así como las conclusiones que de ellos se derivan, son responsabilidad exclusiva de los autores y no reflejan necesariamente las del Banco de México.The Working Papers series of Banco de México disseminates preliminary results of economic research conducted at Banco de México in order to promote the exchange and debate of ideas. The views and conclusions presented in the Working Papers are exclusively the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Banco de México.Abstract: Using data of households approaching retirement in the U.S., I find that the Whites' median saving rates are 9 percentage points larger than the Mexican Americans' rates (ethnic gap) and than the African Americans' rates (racial gap). Two-thirds of each gap correspond to changes in asset prices and a third to households' active decisions. Quantile decompositions show that differences in income and education explain most of the active saving gaps. This implies that wealth inequality is not attributable to differences in the distributions of active saving rates conditional on socio-economic characteristics. When retirement assets are included, the racial but not the ethnic gap in total savings disappears. The results suggest that reducing disparities in income, education and pension savings would help to reduce wealth inequality.Resumen: Usando datos de hogares cercanos al retiro en Estados Unidos, encuentro que las tasas de ahorro medianas de los Blancos son 9 puntos porcentuales mayores que las de los Mexicanoamericanos (brecha étnica) y Afroamericanos (brecha racial). Dos tercios de cada brecha corresponden a cambios en los precios de los activos y un tercio a decisiones activas de los hogares. Las descomposiciones por cuantiles muestran que diferencias en ingreso y educación explican gran parte de las brechas en ahorros activos. Esto implica que la desigualdad de la riqueza no es atribuible a diferencias en las distribuciones de las tasas de ahorro activas condicionales a características socio-económicas. Cuando se incluyen los ahorros para el retiro, la brecha racial en los ahorros totales desaparece, pero no la étnica. Los resultados sugieren que reducir las disparidades en ingreso, edu...

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The Fluidity of Race: “Passing” in the United States, 1880-1940

Cited by 37 publications

References 47 publications

How Do Immigrants Respond to Discrimination? The Case of Germans in the US During World War I

How Do Immigrants Respond to Discrimination? The Case of Germans in the US During World War I

Evidence of discrimination by preference in Brazil

Ethnic and racial disparities in saving behavior

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