Authors
Michael Baker, Dwayne Benjamin
Publication date
1997/9/1
Journal
The American Economic Review
Pages
705-727
Publisher
American Economic Association
Description
We evaluate some explanations of immigrants' family labor-supply behavior. Upon arrival, immigrant husbands work less than natives, but immigrant wives work more. A conventional labor-supply model uses wage assimilation to explain these differences but is not supported by the data. More favorable results are obtained for the "family investment model," in which wives in immigrant families take on "dead-end" jobs to finance their husbands' investments in human capital. We conclude that family composition is an important correlate of immigrants' assimilation, and the family investment model can account for many of the patterns in the data.
Total citations
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