Ira Gang
Rutgers University
Department of Economics
E-mail: gang@economics.rutgers.edu
Item Number: [J43]
Title: Is child like parent? Educational Attainment and Ethnic Origin
Abstract: The speed at which immigrants assimilate is the subject
of debate. Human capital formation plays a major role in this discussion.
We compare second generation immigrants’ educational attainments to those
of similarly aged natives. Evidence from German data suggests ethnicity
matters: ethnic network size has a positive effect on educational attainment,
and a clear pattern is exhibited between countries-of-origin and education
even in the second generation. For children of the foreign-born, parental
schooling plays no role in educational choices. For Germans, contrary
to the literature’s general findings, there is a statistically significant
difference in favor of father’s over mother’s education.
Reference: Ira N. Gang and Klaus F. Zimmermann, Is Child Like
Parent? Educational Attainment and Ethnic Origin, Journal of Human Resources,
35 (2000) 550-569. Reprinted in Klaus F. Zimmermann and Thomas Bauer,
eds, Economics of Migration, Edward Elgar Pub., forthcoming, in Series:
International Library of Critical Writings in Economics, Series Editor Mark
Blaug.
Co-Author Information:
Klaus F. Zimmermann
IZA - Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn and DIW, Berlin
E-Mail: zimmermann@iza.org
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