IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wop/jopovw/216.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Immigrants and Wealth Stratification In The U.S

Author

Listed:
  • Lingxin Hao

Abstract

This study examines the importance of including immigrants in studies of wealth stratification by race-ethnicity in the United States. We address the uniqueness of immigrants in both our descriptive and multivariate analyses. In the former, we construct a measure of “wealth age” that takes into account immigrants’ lengths of residence in the U.S. For the latter, we consider immigrants’ migration and adaptation history and the immigrant-native differences in factors sorting wealth accumulation. Our descriptive analysis shows greater differences in wealth distribution, zero and negative wealth holdings, wealth components, and age-wealth profiles by race-ethnicity than by immigrant status. The age-wealth profiles are steeper for immigrants than for the native-born when “wealth age” is used. The multivariate analysis uses a framework integrating life cycle theory, status attainment theory, human capital theory, and theories related to social contexts. Our study finds a positive effect of immigrant status on wealth accumulation, in contrast to the impairing effects of race-ethnic minorities. Immigrants’ migration and adaptation history also plays a role in their wealth accumulation. In addition, our analysis reveals significant structural differences between immigrants and natives—a lesser role of education and spatial segregation in wealth accumulation for immigrants—and between whites and minorities—a greater role of education for minorities. Implications for social stratification, spatial segregation, and immigrant assimilation are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Lingxin Hao, 2001. "Immigrants and Wealth Stratification In The U.S," JCPR Working Papers 216, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:wop:jopovw:216
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Modigliani, Franco, 1986. "Life Cycle, Individual Thrift, and the Wealth of Nations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(3), pages 297-313, June.
    2. George J. Borjas, 1994. "The Economics of Immigration," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(4), pages 1667-1717, December.
    3. Edward N. Wolff, 1998. "Recent Trends in the Size Distribution of Household Wealth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 131-150, Summer.
    4. Richard Alba & John Logan, 1991. "Variations on two themes: Racial and ethnic patterns in the attainment of suburban residence," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 28(3), pages 431-453, August.
    5. Douglas S. Massey & Michael J. White & Voon-Chin Phua, 1996. "The Dimensions of Segregation Revisited," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 25(2), pages 172-206, November.
    6. Jennifer Hook & Jennifer Glick & Frank Bean, 1999. "Public assistance receipt among immigrants and natives: How the unit of analysis affects research findings," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 36(1), pages 111-120, February.
    7. Lupton, J. & Smith, J.P., 1999. "Marriage, Assets, and Savings," Papers 99-12, RAND - Labor and Population Program.
    8. Guillermina Jasso & Mark R. Rosenzweig & James P. Smith, 2000. "The Changing Skill of New Immigrants to the United States: Recent Trends and Their Determinants," NBER Chapters, in: Issues in the Economics of Immigration, pages 185-226, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jane Sneddon Little & Robert K. Triest, 2002. "The impact of demographic change on U. S. labor markets," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Q 1, pages 47-68.
    2. Beverly, Sondra G. & Sherraden, Michael, 1999. "Institutional determinants of saving: implications for low-income households and public policy," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 457-473.
    3. Lucie Schmidt & Purvi Sevak, 2006. "Gender, Marriage, And Asset Accumulation In The United States," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 139-166.
    4. Milo Bianchi, 2013. "Immigration Policy and Self-Selecting Migrants," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 15(1), pages 1-23, February.
    5. Thomas Liebig & Alfonso Sousa-Poza, 2003. "How does income inequality influence international migration?," ERSA conference papers ersa03p472, European Regional Science Association.
    6. Lingxin Hao, 2000. "Public Assistance and Private Support of Immigrants," JCPR Working Papers 171, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    7. Thomas K. Bauer & Deborah A. Cobb‐Clark & Vincent A. Hildebrand & Mathias G. Sinning, 2011. "A Comparative Analysis Of The Nativity Wealth Gap," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 49(4), pages 989-1007, October.
    8. Ximena Clark & Timothy J. Hatton & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2002. "Where Do U.S. Immigrants Come From, and Why?," NBER Working Papers 8998, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Clinton Lively, 2001. "Merrill Lynch & Co.: process risk management program," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    10. Mattoo, Aaditya & Neagu, Ileana Cristina & Özden, Çaglar, 2008. "Brain waste? Educated immigrants in the US labor market," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 255-269, October.
    11. Deborah A. Cobb‐Clark & Vincent A. Hildebrand, 2006. "The Wealth And Asset Holdings Of U.S.‐Born And Foreign‐Born Households: Evidence From Sipp Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 52(1), pages 17-42, March.
    12. Neagu, Ileana Cristina, 2009. "Career placement of skilled migrants in the U.S. labor market : a dynamic approach," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4891, The World Bank.
    13. Mattoo, Aaditya & Neagu, Ileana Cristina & Özden, Çağlar, 2012. "Performance of skilled migrants in the U.S.: A dynamic approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 829-843.
    14. Mark Levels & Jaap Dronkers & Christopher Jencks, 2017. "Contextual explanations for numeracy and literacy skill disparities between native and foreign-born adults in western countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-25, March.
    15. Karin Mayr, 2003. "Immigration and Majority Voting on Income Redistriubtion-Is there a Case for Opposition from Natives?," Economics working papers 2003-08, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    16. Korom, Philipp, 2016. "Inherited advantage: The importance of inheritance for private wealth accumulation in Europe," MPIfG Discussion Paper 16/11, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    17. Ottaviano, Gianmarco & Peri, Giovanni, 2008. "Immigration and National Wages: Clarifying the Theory and the Empirics," CEPR Discussion Papers 6916, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr & William F. Lincoln, 2015. "Skilled Immigration and the Employment Structures of US Firms," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(S1), pages 147-186.
    19. Judith K. Hellerstein & David Neumark, 2003. "Ethnicity, Language, and Workplace Segregation: Evidence from a New Matched Employer-Employee Data Set," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 71-72, pages 1-15.
    20. Jacques Le Cacheux & Vincent Touzé, 2002. "Les modèles d'équilibre général calculable à générations imbriquées. Enjeux, méthodes et résultats," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 80(1), pages 87-113.

    More about this item

    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:wop:jopovw:216. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Thomas Krichel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/jcuchus.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.