Estimating the Potential Impact of Combined Race and Ethnicity Reporting on Long-Term Earnings Statistics
September 2024
Working Paper Number:
CES-24-48
Abstract
We use place of birth information from the Social Security Administration linked to earnings data from the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Program and detailed race and ethnicity data from the 2010 Census to study how long-term earnings differentials vary by place of birth for different self-identified race and ethnicity categories. We focus on foreign-born persons from countries that are heavily Hispanic and from countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). We find substantial heterogeneity of long-term earnings differentials within country of birth, some of which will be difficult to detect when the reporting format changes from the current two-question version to the new single-question version because they depend on self-identifications that place the individual in two distinct categories within the single-question format, specifically, Hispanic and White or Black, and MENA and White or Black. We also study the USA-born children of these same immigrants. Long-term earnings differences for the 2nd generation also vary as a function of self-identified ethnicity and race in ways that changing to the single-question format could affect.
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:
earnings,
minority,
ethnicity,
ethnic,
hispanic,
heterogeneity,
mexican,
immigrant,
immigrated,
discriminatory,
latino,
racial,
race,
generation,
ssa,
intergenerational,
census responses,
race census
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Social Security Administration,
Decennial Census,
Cornell University,
Unemployment Insurance,
American Community Survey,
Social Security Number,
Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics,
Protected Identification Key,
Sloan Foundation,
Office of Personnel Management,
Census Bureau Disclosure Review Board,
2010 Census,
Disclosure Review Board,
Census Numident,
Some Other Race
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