I'll Marry You If You Get Me a Job: Cross-Nativity Marriages and Immigrant Employment Rates

Delia Furtado and Nikolaos Theodoropoulos

No 801, RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series from Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin)

Abstract: This paper tests whether marriage to a native affects the probability that an immigrant is employed. We provide a theoretical background which explains how marriage to a native may positively or negatively affect an immigrant's employment probability. Utilizing the 2000 U.S. Census, we first look at the effect of cross-nativity marriages on employment using a linear probability model. Then, we estimate a two stage least squares model instrumenting for cross-nativity marriages using local marriage market conditions. Results from a linear probability model controlling for the usual measures of human capital and immigrant assimilation suggest that marriage to a native increases the employment probability of an immigrant by approximately 5 percentage points. When controlling for the endogeneity of the intermarriage decision, marriage to a native increases the employment probability by about 11 percentage points. We provide alternative explanations and suggest policy implications.

Keywords: Intermarriage; Employment; Immigration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J12 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cream-migration.org/publ_uploads/CDP_01_08.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:crm:wpaper:0801

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series from Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Moritz Lubczyk () and Matthew Nibloe ().