1994 - Ethnicity, Neighborhoods, and Human Capital Externalities

Attribution: Borjas, George J.
Researchers: George J. Borjas
University Affiliation: Harvard University
Email: gborjas@harvard.edu
Research Question:
Investigates the link between ethnic externality and ethnic neighborhoods
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: National Bureau of Economic Research
Journal Entry: Working Paper No. 4912, November
Year: 1994
Findings:
  • Census and NLSY data show strong patterns of residential segregation by ethnic group.
  • Ethnicity has an external effect on the human capital accumulation process.
  • Residential segregation is linked to the influence of ethnic capital on the process of intergenerational mobility.
  • Ethnic capital functions through neighborhood effects that influence intergenerational mobility.
  • Neighborhood effects alone do not account for the effect of ethnicity or intergenerational mobility, particularly for residents of ethnically segregated neighborhoods.
  • Ethnicity has an impact above and beyond parental and neighborhood effects for people who are frequently exposed to an ethnic environment.
  • Residential segregation and the external effect of ethnicity are linked, partly because ethnic capital summarizes the socioeconomic background of the neighborhood where the children were raised.
  • Ethnicity has an external effect, even among persons who grow up in the same neighborhood, when children are exposed frequently to persons who share the same ethnic background.
Keywords: Academic AchievementEthnicityHuman CapitalNeighborhoodResidential SegregationRegions: NationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Secondary Survey DataAnalysis Methods: Fixed Effects Regression Models Sampling Frame:National
Sampling Types: RandomAnalysis Units: IndividualData Types: Quantitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
  • The data are from the 1/100 Neighborhood File of the 1970 Public Use Sample of the US Census and the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY).
  • The NLSY provides ethnicity and ancestry information.
  • The Census file is used for individual demographic data and locates people into 42,950 neighborhoods that are equivalent to Census tracts.
  • The data identifies college graduates and first or second generation immigrant status.
  • This study analyzes persons ages 18-64.
  • DV: Skills (such as educational attainment or the log wage) of person I in ethnic group j.
  • IV: Skills of his father, average skills of the ethnic group in father’s generation (ethnic capital), neighborhood fixed effects.
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts