For Economic Advantage or Something Else? A Case for Racial Identification Switching

Salvador Contreras ()

The Review of Black Political Economy, 2016, vol. 43, issue 3, 301-323

Abstract: Abstract The identity choices people take on serve as a filter for viewing the world. It is believed that race identity formation is in part a response to economic and social incentives. Using NELS 1988 dataset we evaluate at the individual level factors that affect changes in self-reported racial identity. We find that being multiracial, living in a non-affirmative action ban state, and relative income/education measures within race groups have an effect on racial identity switching. We find strong evidence that the social-political environments surrounding an affirmative action ban alters the likelihood that an individual will change race. Our results suggest that social factors when present dominate economic incentives to take on a different racial identity.

Keywords: Racial identity; Race switching; J15; Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1007/s12114-016-9238-5

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