Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/227174 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13647
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese immigration and institutionalized discrimination against Chinese in U.S. society. This study examines the impact of institutional discrimination on the assimilation of Chinese by exploiting the passage of the Act and the state-level variation in the intensity of discrimination, measured by the voting outcomes of the Act and the number of anti-Chinese incidents. Our difference-in-differences estimates show that discrimination substantially slowed the occupational assimilation of Chinese in the Exclusion Era (1882–1943) and that Chinese in the U.S. reacted to discrimination by investing in human capital, improving English skills, and increasingly adopting Americanized names. The triple difference estimates show that these effects are significantly stronger in states with higher support rates of the Act or greater numbers of anti-Chinese incidents. These findings are not driven by the selection in migration and fertility.
Subjects: 
the Chinese Exclusion Act
assimilation
human capital
name Americanization
JEL: 
J15
N31
K37
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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