Choosing Racial Identity in the United States, 1880-1940

Ricardo Dahis, Emily Nix and Nancy Qian

No 26465, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper documents that a large number of African American men experienced a change in racial identity to white during 1880 to 1940, while analogous changes were negligible for other races. We provide descriptive evidence that is consistent with the conventional wisdom that “passing” for white was a response to severe discrimination, and came at great personal cost. The findings suggest that contrary to traditional economic thinking, racial identity is neither entirely exogenous nor fixed over the lifetime, and responds to incentives.

JEL-codes: J1 J15 N3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-lab and nep-ure
Note: DAE POL
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