Measuring Ethnic Identity and Its Impact on Economic Behavior

Amelie Constant and Klaus Zimmermann ()

No 47, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: The paper advocates for a new measure of the ethnic identity of migrants, models its determinants and explores its explanatory power for various types of their economic performance. The ethnosizer, a measure of the intensity of a person's ethnic identity, is constructed from information on the following elements: language, culture, societal interaction, history of migration, and ethnic self-identification. A two-dimensional concept of the ethnosizer classifies migrants into four states: integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization. The ethnosizer largely depends on pre-migration characteristics. Empirical evidence studying economic behavior like work participation, earnings and housing decisions demonstrates the significant relevance of ethnic identity for economic outcomes.

Keywords: Ethnicity; ethnic identity; acculturation; migrant assimilation; migrant integration; work; cultural economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J15 J16 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 p.
Date: 2007
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.63394.de/diw_sp0047.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Measuring Ethnic Identity and its Impact on Economic Behavior (2008)
Working Paper: Measuring Ethnic Identity and Its Impact on Economic Behaviour (2007)
Working Paper: Measuring Ethnic Identity and Its Impact on Economic Behavior (2007)
Working Paper: Measuring Ethnic Identity and Its Impact on Economic Behavior (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp47

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