SGER: Annual Income, Hourly Wages, and Identity Formation Among Latinos

这项探索性研究考察了拉美裔美国人替代种族认同规范的经济诱因，特别关注墨西哥裔人。该理论模型有两个纯粹的规范：文化适应规范和种族认同规范。如果文化适应主义规范盛行，拉美裔美国人将以非拉美裔白人的身份融入美国社会，不会在劳动力市场面临持续的种族歧视。如果一种种族认同规范盛行，拉美裔人将形成一种独特的种族身份，即既不是黑人也不是白人，并在劳动力市场面临持久的种族歧视。经验评估表明，一种适应文化的规范很可能会在墨西哥和古巴裔美国人中盛行。因此，拉美裔美国人，特别是墨西哥人和古巴人后裔，但波多黎各人较少，能够通过放弃独特的拉美裔种族认同并适应非拉美裔白人种族认同来增加年收入和小时工资。然而，无论是放弃西班牙语，还是放弃特定的西班牙裔种族认同，都不足以克服与肤色黝黑和非欧洲表型相关的惩罚。这是一项独特的研究。许多经济学研究都考察了种族对经济结果的影响，但还没有人将种族认同的形成作为一个经济变量来考察，即探索种族认同是内生的这一命题。

This exploratory research examines economic incentives for alternative racial identity norms among Hispanic Americans, with a special focus on persons of Mexican descent. The theoretical model has two pure norms: an acculturationist norm and a racial identity norm. If an acculturationist norm prevails Hispanics will acculturate into American society as Non-Hispanic whites and will not face persistent racial discrimination in the labor market. If a racial identity norm prevails Hispanic will develop a unique race identity, i.e., neither black nor white, and face persistent racial discrimination in the labor market. Empirical evaluation suggests that an acculturationist norm will likely prevail among Mexican and Cuban Americans. Accordingly, Hispanic Americans, especially persons of Mexican and Cuban descent but less so Puerto Ricans, are able to increase income annual income and hourly wages by abandoning a unique Hispanic racial identity and acculturating into a Non-Hispanic white racial identity. However, neither the abandonment of Spanish nor the abandonment of a specifically Hispanic racial self-identity is sufficient to overcome the penalties associated with having a dark complexion and Non-European phenotype. This is a unique study. Many economic studies have examined the impact on race on economic outcomes but no previous study has examined the formation of racial identity as an economic variable, i.e., to explore the thesis that racial identity is endogenous.