Education and Selection into Ethnic Identification: Evidence from Roma People in Romania

Andreea Mitrut, Gabriel Kreindler, Margareta Matache, Andrei Munteanu () and Cristian Pop-Eleches

No 34383, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: How does ethnic identification vary with education among disadvantaged minorities? We study this question for Roma people, Europe's largest ethnic minority, using linked Romanian census data and birth records. We measure how individuals change reported ethnicity over time, or “pass.” Roma identification strongly declines with education, from 80% for those with no education to 40% for postsecondary graduates. We estimate a model with persistent individual heterogeneity and find 3-6 times more Roma postsecondary graduates than in official data. Survey data we collect shows that most Romanians are unaware of these patterns. Such selective passing may reinforce stereotypes about marginalized groups.

JEL-codes: I21 I25 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-inv, nep-tra and nep-ure
Note: DEV ED LS
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w34383.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34383

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w34383
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().