The Decision to Work by Married Immigrant Women
Abstract
Using 1980 Census data, the authors analyze the labor force participation of married
immigrant Asian women by country of origin, compared with that of married immigrant
women from Europe and Canada. The results suggest the existence of a family investment
strategy: evidence from both across groups and within groups indicates that a woman's
decision to work is affected by whether she has a husband who invests in skills specific
to the U.S. labor market, and also by the extent of that investment. Such a family
response may help offset the low earnings of immigrant men who initially lack skills
for which there is a demand in the American labor market.
Type
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2549Collections
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Seth G. Sanders
Professor of Economics
Professor Sanders specializes in the fields of economics and public policy. His research
focuses specifically on four different lines of study, which include the trends of
race and gender in relation to earnings among the highly educated; the effects of
extreme economic changes on workers and families; the performance of gay and lesbian
families within the economy; and the economic consequences of teenage childbearing.
He has received numerous grants for his research, including several from the
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