Mark one or more: Identity choice among multiracial Americans (Job Market Paper), 2015.
Race is often treated as an immutable characteristic, however it is flexible for certain populations. Individuals with ancestry from multiple racial groups vary when self-reporting race; some identify as monoracial while others identify with more than one race. I construct a model to explain how individual characteristics interact with cultural and socioeconomic factors to influence the choice of race for individuals with multiracial ancestry. Using nationally representative data, I show supportive evidence that factors such as region of residence, year, age, employment, and wages are associated with self-reported race among Americans with Black/White and Asian/White ancestry. I document that race is endogenous for the growing US population with multiracial ancestry, which has direct implications for studies of racial disparity and should inform policies targeted by race.
Intergroup relations with changing social identities (with Roy Chen), 2015.
Relative group size, or whether a group is in the minority, is an aspect of social identity that is changeable. We study how laboratory-created majorities and minorities interact, and how changing relative group size affects behavior. Our novel design allows us to examine whether two groups of unequal size exhibit differences in levels of trust and of trustworthiness and test whether causing the majority group to become the minority group, and vice-versa, changes behavior. We find that real-world majority race interacts with laboratory-created minority identity. In a trust game, White subjects in lab minorities pass and return more when compared to White subjects in lab majorities while the behavior of non-White subjects does not differ by relative group size. We also find that subjects do not change their behavior when their relative group sizes change; behavior is driven by initial group size differences.
Driving to opportunity: Local rents, wages, commuting, and sub-metropolitan quality of life (with David Albouy), Journal of Urban Economics, 89: 74-92, 2015.
We examine variation in local rents, wage levels, commuting costs, household characteristics, and amenities within metropolitan areas, for 2071 areas covering the United States, by density and central-city status. We demonstrate the sensibility of estimating wage levels by workplace, not residence, and recover decentralized rent gradients that fall with commuting costs. We construct and map a willingness-to-pay index, which indicates the quality of life typical households receive from local amenities when households are similar, mobile, and informed. This index varies considerably within metros, and is typically high in areas that are dense, suburban, sunny, mild, safe, entertaining, and have elevated school-funding.