%0 Report
        %A Antman, Francisca M.
%A Duncan, Brian
%A Trejo, Stephen J.
        %T Ethnic Attrition and the Observed Health of Later-Generation Mexican Americans
        %D 2016
        %8 2016 Jul
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 10062
        %U https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp10062
        %X Numerous studies find that U.S.-born Hispanics differ significantly from non-Hispanic whites on important measures of human capital, including health. Nevertheless, almost all studies rely on subjective measures of ethnic self-identification to identify immigrants' U.S.-born descendants. This can lead to bias due to "ethnic attrition," which occurs whenever a U.S.-born descendant of a Hispanic immigrant fails to self-identify as Hispanic. This paper shows that Mexican American ethnic attritors are generally more likely to display health outcomes closer to those of non-Hispanic whites. This biases conventional estimates of Mexican American health away from suggesting patterns of assimilation and convergence with non-Hispanic whites.
        %K ethnic attrition
%K assimilation
%K identity