DISSECTING A MONOLITH: THE EFFECT OF STATEHOOD AND ETHNICITY ON EARNINGS TRENDS OF ASIAN AMERICANS IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY

Abstract

In this paper, we qualitatively and quantitatively analyze the effect of statehood and ethnicity on earnings of Asian Americans from 1970 to 2010 using Opportunity Insights data and IPUMS survey data. For Asian Americans, women’s average national household income rank is higher than that of men’s, and immigrant’s higher than US-born’s. Certain states show advantageous conditions that allow immigrants to earn on par with or more than their US-born counterparts; however, the sample size may be too small to be accurate. When examined through an interaction variable, several states or ethnicities on their own had negative coefficients whereas their interactions with the immigrant variable had positive coefficients. Asian American women on average earned less than Asian American men; immigrant women’s earnings were inconclusive. Overall, the IPUMS survey data used was not large enough to be accurately representative, nor were there sufficient parent assignments within the database to curate meaningful conclusions regarding intergenerational effects.