An Analysis of Earnings Differentials between College-Educated Chinese Immigrants and US Natives: Who Has the Advantage?

Abstract

This paper uses 2012 American Community Survey (ACS) data to examine the relative earnings performance of full-time employed college-educated Chinese immigrants compared to full-time employed college-educated natives. The college-educated Chinese immigrant population has nearly a $7,000 unadjusted earnings advantage over natives. We show that this advantage is primarily due to differences in human capital endowments between the two groups. For example, college-educated Chinese immigrants are more likely to have PhD degrees and to choose majors that lead to higher paying occupations than college-educated natives. When we control for human capital and demographic differences, the Chinese immigrant earnings advantage becomes a small disadvantage. We also find that Chinese that came as youth, and have been in the U.S. for many years, have a significant earnings advantage over other Chinese immigrants. (J11, J31, J61)