Working Papers
Enemy Until Proven American: Occupation Effects of Japanese-American Incarceration (w/ Kamelia Stavreva and Donato Onorato)
Between 1942 and 1946, over 100,000 Japanese Americans, roughly 85% of Japanese individuals living in the mainland United States, were incarcerated in remote camps by the federal government. In this paper, we first document three challenges that hamper estimation of the earnings effects of this horrific event: limited income information, inability to identify the treated group in the pre or post period, and finding a suitable comparison group. Next we systematically address these challenges by substituting occupation score, linking individuals across time, and using inverse propensity score weighting and estimate occupation effects. Across all methodologies, we find incarceration decreased occupation score between 5-15%. By tracking linked individuals, we also provide suggestive evidence these effects are due to Japanese Americans getting stuck in low paying industries like agriculture and not moving up the job ladder within industries.
New Rights to Old Wrongs? Effects of Reparations to Japanese Americans (w/ Kamelia Stavreva and Donato Onorato)
In 1942, the U.S. federal government forcibly incarcerated over 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry on the U.S. West Coast (mostly U.S. citizens) in concentration camps for an average of 2 years. 46 years later, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was signed providing reparations of $20,000 for each victim. Using the publicly available 2000 Census and leveraging a birth date eligibility cutoff with a regression discontinuity design, we show that individuals eligible for reparations had significantly higher nonwage income, but no difference in wage income nor labor supply. With administrative data, we will link to the federal records of reparations payments to refine the regression discontinuity and identify recipients exactly. Additionally, we will link recipients backwards in time to the 1940 and 1950 Censuses to assess whether the payments restored them to their original relative position and trajectory. To measure persistence, we will then link recipients to their children and grandchildren to test if the effects are transmitted across generations through income or educational attainment. Through these analyses, we will study the mechanism through which reparations operate and whether they are able to transform victims’ lives.