1. The quality effect is given by (b2 - b1)(18), where b2 is the coefficient on YRSUS and b1 is the coefficient on AGEMIG. Discrimination, defined as differences in the estimated intercepts and returns to U.S. experience, is measured by (a2 + a3) + (b3 + b4 - b2)(18) + (d2 + d3)(182), where a2 and a3 are the coefficients on N and P; b2, b3 and b4 are the coefficients on YRSUS, AGE, and PAGE; and d2 and d3 are the coefficients on NAGE2 and PAGE2.
2. The Effect on White Incomes of Discrimination in Employment
3. Although the evidence is somewhat weaker, the same pattern is found in Michigan's furniture industry. See Hannon, “The Immigrant Worker” pp. 161–223.
4. It should be noted that the Gallaway, Vedder, and Shukla study leaves open the possibility that immigrant settlement choices could have been influenced by economic factors other than labor market conditions. For example, immigrants may have preferred large cities because economies of scale in the provision of special goods and services demanded by ethnic groups resulted in the concentration of such things as ethnic food markets and restaurants or foreign-language newspapers in large cities.
5. The regressions, of course, are based on cross-sectional data and are only suggestive of the lifetime earnings or occupational experience of individuals. I have shown elsewhere, however, that changes over time in the composition of the immigrant stock or in the degree of discrimination are unlikely explanations of the cross section profiles. See Hannon, “The Immigrant Worker”, pp. 340–46.