Measuring ethnic identity and its impact on economic behavior

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 3063

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft
• Subject: Ethnicity ; ethnic identity ; acculturation ; migrant assimilation ; migrant integration ; work ; cultural economics ; Migranten ; Ethnische Gruppe ; Kulturpsychologie ; Soziale Integration ; Wirtschaftsethnologie ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Constant, Amelie F. ; Zimmermann, Klaus F.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2007

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/34717
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET