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Jews at Work

Their Economic Progress in the American Labor Market

  • A unique conceptual and statistical analysis of the economic progress of American Jews
  • Compares the occupations of Jewish and non-Jewish men in the US from 1860 to 2000
  • Synthesizes implications to explain how Jews have achieved their remarkable success
  • Brings together in one place the research of noted economist Barry R. Chiswick on the topic, with new analyses highlighting the emergent themes

Part of the book series: Studies of Jews in Society (SOJS, volume 2)

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Table of contents (17 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
  2. Introduction

    • Barry R. Chiswick
    Pages 1-10
  3. Upward Mobility

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-88
    2. The Rise and Fall of the American Jewish PhD

      • Barry R. Chiswick
      Pages 171-187
    3. The Economics of the Diaspora Revisited

      • Eliezer B. Ayal, Barry R. Chiswick
      Pages 189-202
  4. The Value of Jewish Time

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 265-266
    2. The Cost of Living Jewishly and Jewish Continuity

      • Barry R. Chiswick, Carmel U. Chiswick
      Pages 267-277

About this book

This book addresses the educational, occupational, and income progress of Jews in the American labor market. Using theoretical and statistical findings, it compares the experience of American Jews with that of other Americans, from the middle of the 19th century through the 20th and into the early 21st century.

Jews in the United States have been remarkably successful; from peddlers and low-skilled factory workers, clearly near the bottom of the economic ladder, they have, as a community, risen to the top of the economic ladder. The papers included in this volume, all authored or co-authored by Barry Chiswick, address such issues as the English language proficiency, occupational attainment and earnings of Jews, educational and labor market discrimination against Jews, life cycle and labor force participation patterns of Jewish women, and historical and methodological issues, among many others. The final chapter analyzes alternative explanations for theconsistently high level of educational and economic achievement of American Jewry over the past century and a half.

The chapters in this book also develop and demonstrate the usefulness of alternative techniques for identifying Jews in US Census and survey data where neither religion nor Jewish ethnicity is explicitly identified. This methodology is also applicable to the study of other minority groups in the US and in other countries.

Reviews

“Jews at Work is a thought-provoking book that includes a wealth of new hypotheses, carefully conducted statistical tests, and creative innovations on both the theoretical and empirical analysis fronts. … the writing is crystal clear. The key ideas and findings are eminently accessible to a wider set of readers.” (Evelyn L. Lehrer, Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 43 (1), 2023)



“Chiswick’s work is broad in scope.” (Paul Burstein, Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 33, 2023)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Economics and Elliot School of International Affairs, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

    Barry R. Chiswick

About the editor

Barry R. Chiswick is Professor of Economics and of International Affairs at the George Washington University and a Research Fellow at IZA Institute of Labor Economics and at GLO Global Labor Organization. He is a former Senior Staff Economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. He has received numerous honors for his research, including Doctor of Philosophy Honoris Causa from Lund University (Sweden) a Fulbright Foundation Research Fellowship, the IZA Prize in Labor Economics, the Carleton C. Qualey Article Award from the Immigration History Society, and the Marshall Sklare Award from the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry. His research has been published in journals in Economics, Sociology, History, Demography, Jewish Studies, and Socio-linguistics.


    

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access