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Title: What Role Does Racial Integration Play in the Economic Performance of the (United) States?

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2007

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Abstract: It has been found empirically that social fractionalizationlimits economic growth and development. What has not been studied isthe extent to which social integrative processes may ease these limitationsand thus positively contribute to economic growth and development. Usinga panel of the 48 contiguous U.S. states as a case study, this paper exam-ines the role racial integration as measured by the percentage of interracialmarriages plays in the determination of income per capita. I ?nd that racialintegration as measured by the percentage of interracial marriages is a signif-icant predictor of income per capita across these states. To account for theproblem of reverse causality and thus endogeneity, the number of decadesthe states have allowed interracial marriages by repealing antimiscegenationlaws is used as instrument for interracial marriages for instrumental vari-able estimation. I also use the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court?s decision, whichoverturned the antimiscegenation laws of the states that continued to havesuch laws as an exogenous event for dierence-in-dierence estimation.

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Authors: Boakye, Said

Publisher: University of Colorado-Boulder

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other, Race and Ethnicity

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