An Analysis of Earnings Differentials between College-Educated Chinese Immigrants and US Natives: Who Has the Advantage?

Lu Liao and Michael Seeborg
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Lu Liao: Illinois Wesleyan University

Journal of Economic Insight, 2015, vol. 41, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: This paper uses 2012 American Community Survey (ACS) data to examine the relative earnings performance of full-time employed college-educated Chinese immigrants compared to full-time employed college-educated natives. The college-educated Chinese immigrant population has nearly a $7,000 unadjusted earnings advantage over natives. We show that this advantage is primarily due to differences in human capital endowments between the two groups. For example, college-educated Chinese immigrants are more likely to have PhD degrees and to choose majors that lead to higher paying occupations than college-educated natives. When we control for human capital and demographic differences, the Chinese immigrant earnings advantage becomes a small disadvantage. We also find that Chinese that came as youth, and have been in the U.S. for many years, have a significant earnings advantage over other Chinese immigrants.

JEL-codes: J11 J31 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mve:journl:v:41:y:2015:i:2:p:1-18

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