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The Economics of Identity and the Endogeneity of Race

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Author Info
Howard Bodenhorn
Christopher S. Ruebeck
Christopher S. Ruebeck
Abstract

Economic and social theorists have modeled race and ethnicity as a form of personal identity produced in recognition of the costliness of adopting and maintaining a specific identity. These models of racial and ethnic identity recognize that race and ethnicity is potentially endogenous because racial and ethnic identities are fluid. We look at the free African-American population in the mid-nineteenth century to investigate the costs and benefits of adopting alternative racial identities. We model the choice as an extensive-form game, where whites choose to accept or reject a separate mulatto identity and mixed race individuals then choose whether or not to adopt that mulatto identity. Adopting a mulatto identity generates pecuniary gains, but imposes psychic costs. Our empirical results imply that race is contextual and that there was a large pecuniary benefit to adopting a mixed-race identity.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 9962.

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Date of creation: Sep 2003
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9962

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N3 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Income, and Wealth
J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination

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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.:
  1. Darity, William Jr. & Mason, Patrick L. & Stewart, James B., 2006. "The economics of identity: The origin and persistence of racial identity norms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 283-305, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Blau, Francine D & Graham, John W, 1990. "Black-White Differences in Wealth and Asset Composition," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 105(2), pages 321-39, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2000. "Economics And Identity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 115(3), pages 715-753, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Howard Bodenhorn, 2002. "The Complexion Gap: The Economic Consequences of Color among Free African Americans in the Rural Antebellum South," NBER Working Papers 8957, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Joseph G. Altonji & Ulrich Doraszelski & Lewis Segal, 2000. "Black/white differences in wealth," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue Q I, pages 38-50. [Downloadable!]
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  1. Campos, Nauro F & Kuzeyev, Vitaliy, 2007. "On the Dynamics of Ethnic Fractionalization," CEPR Discussion Papers 6360, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Nekby, Lena & Rödin, Magnus, 2007. "Acculturation Identity and Labor Market Outcomes," SULCIS Working Papers 2007:4, Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Howard Bodenhorn & Christopher Ruebeck, 2007. "Colourism and African'american wealth: evidence from the nineteenth-century south," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 599-620, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Laura Zimmermann & Klaus F. Zimmermann & Amelie Constant, 2006. "Ethnic Self-Identification of First-Generation Immigrants," IZA Discussion Papers 2535, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  5. Antecol, Heather & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A., 2004. "Identity and Racial Harassment," IZA Discussion Papers 1149, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  6. Laura Zimmermann & Liliya Gataullina & Amelie Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2006. "Human Capital and Ethnic Self-Identification of Migrants," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 616, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Howard Bodenhorn & Christopher S. Ruebeck, 2005. "Colorism and African American Wealth: Evidence from the Nineteenth-Century South," NBER Working Papers 11732, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Lena Nekby & Magnus Rödin & Gülay Özcan, 2007. "Acculturation Identity and Educational Attainment," IZA Discussion Papers 3172, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  9. Fernando Aguiar & Pablo Branas-Garza & Maria Paz Espinosa & Luis M. Miller, 2007. "Personal Identity in the Dictator Game," Jena Economic Research Papers 2007-007, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Max-Planck-Institute of Economics, Thueringer Universitaets- und Landesbibliothek. [Downloadable!]
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