Ethnic Identification, Intermarriage, and Unmeasured Progress by Mexican Americans

Brian Duncan () and Stephen Trejo
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Brian Duncan: University of Colorado Denver

No 1629, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Using Census and CPS data, we show that U.S.-born Mexican Americans who marry non-Mexicans are substantially more educated and English proficient, on average, than are Mexican Americans who marry co-ethnics (whether they be Mexican Americans or Mexican immigrants). In addition, the non-Mexican spouses of intermarried Mexican Americans possess relatively high levels of schooling and English proficiency, compared to the spouses of endogamously married Mexican Americans. The human capital selectivity of Mexican intermarriage generates corresponding differences in the employment and earnings of Mexican Americans and their spouses. Moreover, the children of intermarried Mexican Americans are much less likely to be identified as Mexican than are the children of endogamous Mexican marriages. These forces combine to produce strong negative correlations between the education, English proficiency, employment, and earnings of Mexican-American parents and the chances that their children retain a Mexican ethnicity. Such findings raise the possibility that selective ethnic "attrition" might bias observed measures of intergenerational progress for Mexican Americans.

Keywords: intermarriage; Mexican American; intergenerational progress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J15 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57 pages
Date: 2005-06
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

Published - published in: George J. Borjas (ed.), Mexican Immigration to the United States, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007, 229-267

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Related works:
Chapter: Ethnic Identification, Intermarriage, and Unmeasured Progress by Mexican Americans (2007)
Working Paper: Ethnic Identification, Intermarriage, and Unmeasured Progress by Mexican Americans (2005)
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