Search Results

Author: Chin, Aimee
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Bleakley, Hoyt
Chin, Aimee
What Holds Back the Second Generation? The Intergenerational Transmission of Language Human Capital Among Immigrants
Working Paper No. 104, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS), University of California - San Diego, 2004
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS)
Keyword(s): Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Human Capital; Immigrants; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Language Development; Variables, Instrumental

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Research on the effect of parental human capital on children's human capital is complicated by the endogeneity of parental human capital. This study exploits the phenomenon that younger children learn languages more easily than older children to construct an instrumental variable for language human capital. Thus, among U.S.-born children with childhood immigrant parents, those whose parents arrived to the U.S. as younger children tend to have more exposure to English at home. We find a significant positive effect of parent's English-speaking proficiency on children's English-speaking proficiency while the children are young, but eventually all children attain the highest level of English-speaking proficiency as measured by the Census. We find evidence that children with parents with lower English-speaking proficiency are more likely to drop out of high school, be below their age-appropriate grade, and not attend preschool. Strikingly, parental English-language skills can account for 60% of the difference in dropout rate between non-Hispanic whites and U.S.-born Hispanic children of immigrants.
Bibliography Citation
Bleakley, Hoyt and Aimee Chin. "What Holds Back the Second Generation? The Intergenerational Transmission of Language Human Capital Among Immigrants." Working Paper No. 104, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS), University of California - San Diego, 2004.
2. Bleakley, Hoyt
Chin, Aimee
What Holds Back the Second Generation? The Intergenerational Transmission of Language Human Capital Among Immigrants
Journal of Human Resources 43,2 (Spring 2008): 267-298.
Also: http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/43/2/267.abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Keyword(s): Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Immigrants; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Language Development; Variables, Instrumental

In 2000 Census microdata, various outcomes of second-generation immigrants are related to their parents' age at arrival in the United States, and in particular whether that age fell within the "critical period" of language acquisition. We interpret this as an effect of the parents' English language skills and construct an instrumental variable for parental English proficiency. Estimates of the effect of parents' English-speaking proficiency using two-stage least squares yield significant, positive results for children's English-speaking proficiency and preschool attendance, and significant, negative results for dropping out of high school and being below age-appropriate grade.
Bibliography Citation
Bleakley, Hoyt and Aimee Chin. "What Holds Back the Second Generation? The Intergenerational Transmission of Language Human Capital Among Immigrants." Journal of Human Resources 43,2 (Spring 2008): 267-298.