Working Paper: NBER ID: w20828
Authors: Emily Nix; Nancy Qian
Abstract: This paper quantifies the extent to which individuals experience changes in reported racial identity in the historical U.S. context. Using the full population of historical Censuses for 1880-1940, we document that over 19% of black males “passed” for white at some point during their lifetime, around 10% of whom later “reverse-passed” to being black; passing was accompanied by geographic relocation to communities with a higher percentage of whites and occurred the most in Northern states. The evidence suggests that passing was positively associated with better political-economic and social opportunities for whites relative to blacks. As such, endogenous race is likely to be a quantitatively important phenomenon.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: B4; J15; N3; N31; N32; P16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| passing (Y60) | socio-economic opportunities (O17) |
| socio-economic opportunities (O17) | decision to pass (D79) |
| political, economic, and social factors (P39) | passing (Y60) |
| passing (Y60) | political, economic, and social returns (P26) |
| passing (Y60) | geographic relocation (J61) |