Ethnic specialization and earnings inequality. Why being a minority hurts but being a big minority hurts more.

Autor/in	Kahanec, Martin
Institution	Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit
Titel	Ethnic specialization and earnings inequality. Why being a minority hurts but being a big minority hurts more. Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Ethnische Spezialisierung und Lohnungleichheit. Warum es schadet, einer Minderheit anzugehören, aber es noch schlimmer ist, wenn diese Minderheit groß ist.
Quelle	Bonn (2006), 48 S.; 516 KB PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Reihe	IZA discussion paper. 2050
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Monographie; Graue Literatur
Schlagwörter	Soziokultureller Faktor; Soziale Beziehung; Bildungsabschluss; Determinante; Bevölkerungsstruktur; Einkommensunterschied; Segregation; Sozioökonomischer Faktor; Humankapital; Berufliche Qualifikation; Regionaler Arbeitsmarkt; Arbeitspapier; Netzwerk; Regionaler Faktor; Ethnische Gruppe; Minderheit
Abstract	"Social interaction is an important vehicle of human capital acquisition and its efficiency decreases in social distance. In this paper I establish that these two premises, given the socio-cultural differences between ethnic groups, explain the puzzling evidence that (i) minorities typically earn less than majorities and (ii) this earnings gap is increasing in the relative size of a minority in a given region. In particular, I argue that inter-ethnic social distance disadvantages smaller ethnic groups in human capital acquisition and that these efficiency differentials systematically expose minority and majority individuals to different incentives as concerns their choice of skills. As a result, minority and majority individuals tend to acquire different (combinations of) skills and the textbook substitution effect drives an efficiency unit of minority labor to sell at a relatively lower wage in a region with higher percentage of minority people. The conditions under which th! e efficiency disadvantage of the minority in social interaction and the substitution effect explain the abovementioned empirical findings are established. In addition, this study offers an answer why some minorities earn more than majorities, why minority individuals tend to spend more time socializing in families than in schools, and why integration may harm minorities." Forschungsmethode: Theoriebildung; Grundlagenforschung. (author's abstract, IAB-Doku).
Erfasst von	Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Nürnberg
Update	2006/5