Institutional Discrimination and Assimilation: Evidence from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Shuo Chen and Bin Xie ()
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Shuo Chen: Fudan University, China
Bin Xie: Jinan University

No 13647, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese immigration and institutionalized discrimination against Chinese in U.S. society. This study examines the impact of institutional discrimination on the assimilation of Chinese by exploiting the passage of the Act and the state-level variation in the intensity of discrimination, measured by the voting outcomes of the Act and the number of anti-Chinese incidents. Our difference-in-differences estimates show that discrimination substantially slowed the occupational assimilation of Chinese in the Exclusion Era (1882–1943) and that Chinese in the U.S. reacted to discrimination by investing in human capital, improving English skills, and increasingly adopting Americanized names. The triple difference estimates show that these effects are significantly stronger in states with higher support rates of the Act or greater numbers of anti-Chinese incidents. These findings are not driven by the selection in migration and fertility.

Keywords: human capital; assimilation; the Chinese Exclusion Act; name Americanization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 K37 N31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 66 pages
Date: 2020-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-his, nep-lab, nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Explorations in Economic History, 2024, 94, 101615

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