Working Papers
Occupation Effects of World War II Japanese-American Incarceration
In 1942, more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly incarcerated in detention camps by the U.S. government. In this paper, I replicate a recently published article in the Journal of Economic History that claims incarceration increased the victims’ income and show that this result is misleading due to selection into wage reporting. Because Japanese Americans were heavily employed in occupations with little wages before World War II, transitions into wage-earning employment mechanically increased reported wages without implying higher earnings. Using occupation score and linked transitions, I find that incarceration reduced occupational standing and generated persistent labor-market scarring.
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.