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New Evidence of Generational Progress for Mexican Americans

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  • Brian Duncan
  • Jeffrey Grogger
  • Ana Sofia Leon
  • Stephen J. Trejo

Abstract

U.S.-born Mexican Americans suffer a large schooling deficit relative to other Americans, and standard data sources suggest that this deficit does not shrink between the 2nd and later generations. Standard data sources lack information on grandparents’ countries of birth, however, which creates potentially serious issues for tracking the progress of later-generation Mexican Americans. Exploiting unique NLSY97 data that address these measurement issues, we find substantial educational progress between the 2nd and 3rd generations for a recent cohort of Mexican Americans. Such progress is obscured when we instead mimic the limitations inherent in standard data sources.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian Duncan & Jeffrey Grogger & Ana Sofia Leon & Stephen J. Trejo, 2017. "New Evidence of Generational Progress for Mexican Americans," NBER Working Papers 24067, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24067
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    Cited by:

    1. Kone, Zovanga L., 2018. "Intergenerational assimilation of UK immigrants in the labour market: A minor assumption with enormous implications for inference," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 94-99.
    2. Brian Duncan & Stephen J. Trejo, 2023. "Which Mexicans Are White? Enumerator-Assigned Race in the 1930 Census and the Socioeconomic Integration of Mexican Americans," NBER Working Papers 31623, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Maqsood Aslam & Etienne Farvaque & Muhammad Azmat Hayat, 2022. "One partition, many divisions? Ethnicities and education in Pakistan," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 16(2), pages 405-428, May.
    4. Richwine, Jason, 2023. "Savings behavior among immigrants and their U.S.-born children: A test of the culture-transplant model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    5. Pia M. Orrenius & Madeline Zavodny, 2019. "Employment Among US Hispanics: a Tale of Three Generations," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 3-19, June.
    6. Bastian, Jacob & Bian, Luorao & Grogger, Jeffrey, 2022. "How Did Safety-Net Reform Affect the Education of Adolescents from Low-Income Families?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    7. Brian Duncan & Stephen J. Trejo, 2018. "Socioeconomic Integration of U.S. Immigrant Groups over the Long Term: The Second Generation and Beyond," NBER Working Papers 24394, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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