- 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.