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Title: Social Discrimination and Occupational Specialization

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2005

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Abstract: Ethnic minorities have specialized in shopkeeping, moneylending and other middleman activities throughout history. Small groups such as the Jews and the overseas Chinese have frequently prospered. While it is well-known that market discrimination hurts minorities more than the majority, this paper shows how social discrimination can result in the opposite. The complementary role of social interaction in production gives minorities an absolute advantage in some occupations. In addition to historical accounts this theory is applied to Census data on ethnic groups in the United States. It is explained why specialization is more common for the self-employed than for wage-earners.

Url: http://conference.iza.org/conference_files/amm_2005/mandorff_m2275.pdf

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Authors: Mandorff, Martin

Publisher: University of Chicago

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Work, Family, and Time

Countries: United States