Interethnic Marriages and Economic Assimilation of Immigrants

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Interethnic Marriages and Economic Assimilation of Immigrants

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Kantarevic, Jasmin () (Ontario Medical Association, University of Toronto and IZA Bonn)

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Jasmin Kantarevic

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between interethnic marriages and economic assimilation among immigrants in the United States. Two competing hypotheses are evaluated: the productivity hypothesis, according to which immigrants married to native-born spouses assimilate faster than comparable immigrants married to foreign-born spouses because spouses play an integral role in the human capital accumulation of their partners; and the selection hypothesis, according to which the relationship between intermarriages and assimilation is spurious because intermarried immigrants are a selected subsample from the population of all married immigrants. These two hypotheses are analyzed within a model in which earnings of immigrants and their interethnic marital status are jointly determined. The empirical evidence favors the selection hypothesis. Non-intermarried immigrants tend to be negatively selected, and the intermarriage premium obtained by the least squares completely vanishes once we account for the selection.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 1142.

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Length: 36 pages
Date of creation: May 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1142

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

NEP-ALL-2004-06-02 (All new papers)

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

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Other versions:
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

Ours, J.C. van & Veenman, J.M.C., 2008. "How Interethnic Marriages Affect the Educational Attainment of Children: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Discussion Paper 2008-7, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
Timothy J. Hatton & Andrew Leigh, 2007. "Immigrants Assimilate as Communities, Not Just as Individuals," IZA Discussion Papers 2538, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Timothy J. Hatton & Andrew Leigh, 2007. "Immigrants Assimilate as Communities, not just as Individuals," CEPR Discussion Papers 547, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. [Downloadable!]
Delia Furtado, 2007. "Cross-Nativity Marriages, Gender, and Human Capital Levels of Children," Working papers 2007-33, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
Xin Meng & Dominique Meurs, 2006. "Intermarriage, Language, and Economic Assimilation Process: A Case Study of France," IZA Discussion Papers 2461, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Xin Meng & Dominique Meurs, 2009. "Intermarriage, language, and economic assimilation process: A case study of France," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 30(1/2), pages 127-144, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Delia Furtado, 2006. "Human Capital and Interethnic Marriage Decisions," IZA Discussion Papers 1989, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Delia Furtado, 2006. "Human Capital and Interethnic Marriage Decisions," Working papers 2006-03, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
van Ours, Jan C. & Veenman, Justus, 2008. "How Interethnic Marriages Affect the Educational Attainment of Children: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 3308, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
Belot, Michèle & Fidrmuc, Jan, 2009. "Anthropometry of Love: Height and Gender Asymmetries in Interethnic Marriages," CEPR Discussion Papers 7146, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Furtado, Delia & Theodoropoulos, Nikolaos, 2008. "Interethnic Marriage: A Choice between Ethnic and Educational Similarities," IZA Discussion Papers 3448, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
Chiswick, Barry R. & Houseworth, Christina A., 2008. "Ethnic Intermarriage among Immigrants: Human Capital and Assortative Mating," IZA Discussion Papers 3740, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
Helena Skyt Nielsen & Nina Smith & Aycan Celikaksoy, 2007. "The Effect of Marriage on Education of Immigrants: Evidence from a Policy Reform Restricting Spouse Import," Economics Working Papers 2007-07, School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Helena Skyt Nielsen & Nina Smith & Aycan Celikaksoy, 2007. "The Effect of Marriage on Education of Immigrants: Evidence from a Policy Reform Restricting Spouse Import," IZA Discussion Papers 2899, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
Delia Furtado & Nikolaos Theodoropoulos, 2008. "I’ll Marry You If You Get Me a Job: Cross-Nativity Marriages and Immigrant Employment Rates," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0801, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London. [Downloadable!]
Delia Furtado & Nikolaos Theodoropoulos, 2009. "Intermarriage and Immigrant Employment:The Role of Networks," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 3-2009, University of Cyprus Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Delia Furtado & Nikolaos Theodoropoulos, 2009. "Intermarriage and Immigrant Employment: The Role of Networks," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0906, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London, revised Mar 2009. [Downloadable!]
Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Vincent A. Hildebrand, 2008. "The Asset Portfolios of Native-born and Foreign-born Households," CEPR Discussion Papers 567, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Cobb-Clark, Deborah & Hildebrand, Vincent A., 2008. "The Asset Portfolios of Native-Born and Foreign-Born Households," IZA Discussion Papers 3304, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]

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