Abstract
The identity choices people take on serve as a filter for viewing the world. It is believed that race identity formation is in part a response to economic and social incentives. Using NELS 1988 dataset we evaluate at the individual level factors that affect changes in self-reported racial identity. We find that being multiracial, living in a non-affirmative action ban state, and relative income/education measures within race groups have an effect on racial identity switching. We find strong evidence that the social-political environments surrounding an affirmative action ban alters the likelihood that an individual will change race. Our results suggest that social factors when present dominate economic incentives to take on a different racial identity.
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Notes
Los Angeles Times. “Los Angeles Times Exit Poll Study #389 Exit Poll: The General Election, November 5, 1996.” Los Angeles Times (November 1996). Available online at http://www.latimesinteractive.com/pdfarchive/stat_sheets/la-timespoll389ss.pdf
We will omit “non-Hispanic” from appearing in every race reference from here on out. However, the reader should note that every race/ethnicity category is unique to each individual and that it refers to the race/ethnicity choice in 1988.
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This paper has benefited by comments and suggestions made by Mark Lopez, Luis Rene Caceres, Carolyn Liebler, and two anonymous referees.
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Contreras, S. For Economic Advantage or Something Else? A Case for Racial Identification Switching. Rev Black Polit Econ 43, 301–323 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12114-016-9238-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12114-016-9238-5