Katerine Y. Ramirez Nieto, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics in the Leon Hess Business School, presented her paper, “Assessing Intergenerational Transmission of Education for Immigrants in the United States,” at the Southern Economic Association’s (SEA) 91st annual conference held in Houston, Texas last month.
Using the New Immigration Survey data, the paper analyzes how educational outcomes of individuals compare to their immigrant parents. Ramirez explores the underlying presumption that if a person achieves a higher education than his or her parents, then he or she has “moved up.” She contends that this may not be the case for immigrants by using permanent documented immigrants (including applicants for permanent residency) as the focus population, characterizing intergenerational mobility through three generations, and comparing such mobility across regions of the United States.
The Southern Economic Association (SEA) is one of the oldest economics associations in the United States, dating back to a conference held in Atlanta in November 1928. From its founding, the purpose of the Southern Economic Association has been to further the education of scholars and the public in economic affairs. Toward this end, it seeks to stimulate interest in and disseminate results of recent research in theory and applied economics.
The membership of the SEA includes a diverse set of scholars, with a great range in their substantive interests and in their methods of inquiry. The annual conference and the Journal welcome submissions from all fields of economic research and from economists around the world.