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Jewish occupational attainment in the antebellum United States: Filling a gap in the literature

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  • Chiswick, Barry R.
  • Robinson, RaeAnn H.

Abstract

This paper is concerned with analyzing the occupational attainment of American Jewish men compared to other free men in the mid-19th century to help fill a gap in the literature on Jewish achievement. It does this by using the full count (100 percent) microdata file from the 1850 Census of Population, the first census to ask the occupation of free men. Independent lists of surnames are used to identify men with a higher probability of being Jewish. These men were more likely than others to be managers, salesmen, and craft workers, and were less likely to be farmers and laborers. The Jewish men have a higher occupational income score on average. In the multiple regression analysis, it is found that among Jewish and other free men occupational income scores increase with age (up to about age 43 for all men), literacy, being married, having fewer children, being native born, living in the South, and living in an urban area. Even after controlling for these variables that impact the occupational income score, Jews have a significantly higher score, which is the equivalent of about the size of the positive effect of being married. Similar patterns are found using the Duncan Socioeconomic Index. This higher occupational status is consistent with patterns found elsewhere for American Jews for the 18th century and throughout the 20th century.

Suggested Citation

  • Chiswick, Barry R. & Robinson, RaeAnn H., 2025. "Jewish occupational attainment in the antebellum United States: Filling a gap in the literature," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1602, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1602
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Wanamaker, Marianne H., 2014. "Fertility and the Price of Children: Evidence from Slavery and Slave Emancipation," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(4), pages 1045-1071, December.
    2. Saavedra, Martin & Twinam, Tate, 2020. "A machine learning approach to improving occupational income scores," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    3. Joseph P. Ferrie, 1999. "Yankeys Now: Immigrants in the Antebellum US 1840-1860," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number ferr99-1, June.
    4. Barry R. Chiswick, 1988. "Differences in Education and Earnings Across Racial and Ethnic Groups: Tastes, Discrimination, and Investments in Child Quality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 103(3), pages 571-597.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kok, Joris, 2025. "What’s in a (Jewish) Name? Identifying Jews in Dutch Civil Certificates, 1811-1932," SocArXiv c2aer_v1, Center for Open Science.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Jews; Occupational Status; Occupational Income Score; Duncan Socioeconomic Index; 1850 Census of Population;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N31 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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