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Title: Kenji or Kenneth? Pearl Harbor and Japanese-American Assimilation

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2018

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Abstract: Do immigrants assimilate in response to an exogenous shock in anti-immigrant sentiment? This paper investigates this question by examining the bombing of Pearl Harbor as a natural experiment. I generate an index for the America-nization of first names from the 1900-1930 censuses and merge this index with records from the universe of Japanese-American internees during WWII. Regression discontinuity design estimates suggest that Japanese Americans born in the days after Pearl Harbor were more likely to have an Americanized first name relative to children born in the days before December 7th, 1941. JEL codes: J15, N12, Z13

Url: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3218512

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Authors: Saavedra, Martin

Publisher: Oberlin College

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other, Race and Ethnicity

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