Renouncing Personal Names: An Empirical Examination of Surname Change and Earnings

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Arai, Mahmood; Thoursie, Peter Skogman
• 署名单位: Stockholm University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/593964
• 发表日期: 2009
• 页码: 127-147
• 关键词: labor-market; DISCRIMINATION; sweden; immigrants; STATES

摘要

We study the effects of surname change to Swedish-sounding or neutral names on earnings for immigrants from Asian/African/Slavic countries. To estimate this effect, we exploit the variation resulting from different timing of name changes across individuals during the 1990s. The results imply that there is a substantial increase in annual earnings after a name change, no effects on earnings prior to a name change, and no positive general effects of a new name for other groups that renounced a foreign name. Based on these findings, we argue that these effects are due to name change as a response to discrimination.