Rubinstein, Yona 
ORCID: 0009-0000-5274-0252 and Brenner, D.
(2014)
Pride and prejudice: using ethnic-sounding names and inter-ethnic marriages to identify labor market discrimination.
Review of Economic Studies, 81 (1).
pp. 389-425.
ISSN 0034-6527
Abstract
labour markets discriminate against workers with particular ethnic-sounding names? We use non-random sorting into interethnic marriage and salient differences between Sephardic and Ashkenazi surnames to evaluate the causal impact of Sephardic affiliation on wages. Using the 1995 Israeli Census, we estimate the effect of a Sephardic sounding surname on wages. We first compare the wages of Israeli Jewish males born to Sephardic fathers and Ashkenazi mothers (SA), who are more likely to carry a Sephardic surname, with the wages of Israeli Jewish males born to Ashkenazi fathers and Sephardic mothers (AS). We find that Israeli labor markets discriminate based on perceived ethnicity: SA workers earn significantly less than their AS counterparts. We then exploit the custom of women to adopt their husbands’ surnames to disentangle actual ethnicity from the ethnicity perceived by the market. Consistent with ethnic discrimination based on surnames, we find that it is father-in-law’s ethnicity – rather than father’s ethnicity – that shapes female wage rates. Finally, we find that labor markets discriminate based on surname only when those names provide additional information about ethnicity. When ethnicity can be discerned from skin tone, surnames do not provide additional explanatory power with respect to wages.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://restud.oxfordjournals.org/ |
| Additional Information: | © 2013 The Author |
| Divisions: | Management |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races |
| JEL classification: | J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J12 - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs > J31 - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials by Skill, Training, Occupation, etc. J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J7 - Labor Discrimination > J71 - Discrimination |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Oct 2013 08:38 |
| Last Modified: | 07 Nov 2024 00:42 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/48010 |
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