Full Citation

Title: The Americanization of Migrants’ Names and its Economic Payoff

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2013

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Abstract: We examine the impact of name Americanization on labor market outcomes of migrants by constructing a novel longitudinal data set of immigrant naturalization records in 1930 New York where the full initial sample is observed over time. We find that changing into an American name improves labor market outcomes. Compared to name keepers, migrants who change into more popular American names experience larger occupational upgrading, with gains of up to 14% for changing into very common names such as John or William. We show that our estimates of the returns from name Americanization are causal effects by applying instrumental variable methods where we use an index of linguistic complexity based on Scrabble points to predict changes in name Americanization. Our results highlight the tradeoffs between individual identity and labor market success, suggesting that the assimilation process in the first half of the twentieth century passed through economic as well as cultural assimilation.

Url: https://www.sole-jole.org/14140.pdf

Url: https://docs.iza.org/dp7725.pdf

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Authors: Biavaschi, Costanza; Giulietti, Corrado; Siddique, Zahra

Series Title: Institute for the Study of Labor discussion paper

Publication Number: 7725

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Pages: 1-39

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Migration and Immigration

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