IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/qed/dpaper/4557.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The quality of life compared between Puerto Ricans on the Island and Mainland: Economic convergence, migration, and English proficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Ricardo Godoy

    (Heller Graduate School, Brandeis University)

  • Irineu Carvalho

    (Risk Consulting)

  • J. Tomas Hexner

    (President of Hex, Inc.Founder and director, Science Initiative Group at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey
    Department of Economics, Queen's University,Canada and Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus)

Abstract

This article explores how length of residence on the mainland and knowledge of English might affect the quality of life among Puerto Ricans. The subject was explored in two ways. First, the 1990 census of Puerto Rico and the mainland was used to divide the population into various groups such as permanent residents in Puerto Rico and the mainland and various migrants; migrants were grouped by their length of stay on the island. Second, proficiency in English was used as a proxy for assimilation and estimates the contribution of English proficiency to various indicators of the quality of life, such as earnings and dependence on public assistance. In the conclusion we explored the possible reason for the finding and discussed the implications of the finding for future migration flow from Puerto Rico to the mainland, for language policy in Puerto Rico, and for the future of Puerto Rican culture and society on the Island.

Suggested Citation

  • Ricardo Godoy & Irineu Carvalho & J. Tomas Hexner, 2001. "The quality of life compared between Puerto Ricans on the Island and Mainland: Economic convergence, migration, and English proficiency," Development Discussion Papers 2001-02, JDI Executive Programs.
    • Handle: RePEc:qed:dpaper:4557
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://cri-world.com/publications/qed_dp_4557.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    : Economic convergence; migration; English proficiency; Puerto Rico;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O2 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:qed:dpaper:4557. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mark Babcock (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/qedquca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.