Yinon Cohen

Second-generation Jewish immigrants in Israel : have the ethnic gaps in schooling and earnings declined?

This article examines trends in the socio-economic gaps between Western and Eastern Jewish men and women in Israel for the period 1975-1992. The results, based on a quasi-longitudinal design of descriptive statistics (cross section and cohort analyses) and Ordinary Least Squares [OLS] regressions, suggest that in spite of a slight narrowing of the ethnic gap in schooling- the main factor affecting earnings- the overall earnings gap between second-generation Eastern and Western immigrant men has increased in the period 1975-1992. The widening in the earnings gap among men, despite the narrowing of the schooling gap, is rooted in three processes affecting the Israeli society and economy during this time: first, the ageing of both ethnic groups, second, the increase in the returns to college education, third, the tendency of Easterners to complete their college education later in life than Westerners. These processes affected men more than women, and therefore the ethnic earnings gaps among women are smaller...

Ethnicity and mixed ethnicity: Educational gaps among Israeli-born Jews

Abstract This article analyses gaps in the university graduation rates of third-generation Ashkenazim and Mizrahim (the two major ethnic groups among Israeli Jews), in comparison to the same gaps among members of the second generation. The empirical analyses have been performed using a special file of the 1995 Israeli census which matched records of respondents to their parents in the 1983 Census, thereby allowing identification of the ethnicity of the third generation for a representative sample of men and women, 25–34 years of age in 1995, as well as the identification of persons of mixed ethnicity. The results suggest that the gaps between the two major ethnic groups are not smaller in the third generation than in the second generation. Persons of mixed ethnicity – of both the second and third generations – are located about midway between the two ethnic groups with respect to their university graduation rates. Much of the ethnic-based gap in university graduation is due to differences in family background, especially among women. We discuss the implications of these results for the future of ethnic-based stratification in Israel.

Self-selection and earnings assimilation: Immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Israel and the United States

Drawing on U.S. decennial census data and on Israeli census and longitudinal data, we compare the educational levels and earnings assimilation of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) in the United States and Israel during 1968–2000. Because the doors to both countries were practically open to FSU immigrants between 1968 and 1989, when FSU immigrants were entitled to refugee visas in the United States, the comparison can be viewed as a natural experiment in immigrants’ destination choices. The results suggest that FSU immigrants to the United States are of significantly higher educational level and experience significantly faster rates of earnings assimilation in their new destination than their counterparts who immigrated to Israel. We present evidence that patterns of self-selection in immigration to Israel and the United States—on both measured and unmeasured productivity-related traits—is the main reason for these results. When the immigration regulations in the United States changed in 1989, and FSU Jewish immigrants to the United States had to rely on family reunification for obtaining immigrant visas, the adverse effects of the policy change on the type of FSU immigrants coming to the United States were minor and short-lived. As early as 1992, the gaps in the educational levels between FSU immigrants coming to Israel and to the United States returned to their pre-1989 levels, and the differences in earnings assimilation of post-1989 immigrants in the United States and Israel are similar to the differences detected in the 1980s.

Self-selection and return migration: Israeli-born Jews returning home from the United States during the 1980s

Abstract. This paper analyzes self-selection of returning immigrants. We propose an empirical model for this purpose, and apply it to Israeli-born immigrants who arrived in the United States during 1970–79 and returned to Israel during 1980–89. The results, based on analyses of the 5 per cent Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) of the 1980 and 1990 United States censuses, suggest that those who return from the United States to Israel have reached a higher level at school than those who remain in the United States. However, the income analysis suggests that, at each schooling level, those who returned to Israel would have been less successful in the United States labour market than Israelis of similar schooling (and other measured characteristics) who remained in the United States. These results were corroborated using Israeli census data that include information on returning Israelis.

Decentralization of Collective Agreements and Rising Wage Inequality in Israel

This paper presents a systematic analysis of the decentralization of the Israeli system of collective bargaining and its contribution to the rise in earnings inequality. We quantitatively analyze all collective agreements that were signed between 1957 and 2003, and present the scale, scope, and timing of five dimensions of decentralization. The findings suggest that decentralization started in the mid-1970s when national agreements were less likely to be extended to nonunion employees; it was intensified in 1975-1980 when nationwide industrial agreements were supplanted by occupational and local agreements. Decentralization became fully consolidated by 1987 when peak-level agreements covering the entire private sector were no longer signed. We then present evidence (including time-series analyszs that control for union density and macroeconomic indicators) that the process of decentralization, especially the decline in the use of extension orders and the proliferation of local agreements, explains a significant part of the sharp rise in earnings inequality in Israel during 1970-2003.

The number of Israeli immigrants in the United States in 1990

In this paper we estimate the size of several categories of “Israeli” immigrants in the United States. According to the 1990 U.S. census, there were about 95,000 Israeli-born immigrants in the United States in that year. Using the language and ancestry information available in the Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) of the 1990 census, we estimate that of this total, about 80,000 are Jews and 15,000 are Palestinian Arabs born in Israel. In addition to the Israeli-born, we present a range for the number of Jewish immigrants from Israel who are not Israeli-born (about 30,000-56,000). Thus our estimate for the total number of Jewish immigrants from Israel in the United States in 1990 is between 110,000 and 135,000. Fertility information available in the PUMS, also enable us to provide estimates for the number of second-generation Israelis in the United States in the 1990 (about 42,000). Finally, using both the 1980 and 1990 PUMS, we provide estimates for the rate of return migration among Israeli-born Jewish immigrants in the United States.

Differences in earnings assimilation of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union to Germany and Israel during 1994-2005: The interplay between context of reception, observed, and unobserved immigrants’ attributes

The present study considers the interplay between patterns of immigrants’ self-selection and the context of reception (i.e. migration policies and the operation of the labor market) at the host country on different economic assimilation patterns. We compare three groups of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) who arrived in Israel and Germany during 1994—2005: Jewish immigrants who arrived in Israel, Jewish immigrants who arrived in Germany (JQR), and ethnic Germans who arrived in Germany (EG). Using the same questionnaire for the German and Israeli samples, we disentangle the impact of the two effects on immigrants’ earnings assimilation by applying the Juhn et al. (1991) method of decomposing the difference in the earnings differentials between natives and FSU immigrants in the two host countries. The results indicate that earnings gaps between FSU immigrants and natives are wider in Germany than in Israel and that the role of contexts of reception is significant in determining patterns of self-selection. We find that the less rigid market attracts the more motivated immigrants, as indicated by the comparison between Jewish immigrant men in Israel and Germany. Within contexts of immigrant reception, the operation of the labor market is more important than formal policies in enhancing economic assimilation of immigrants, as indicated by the comparisons between JQR and EG immigrants in Germany and between Jewish immigrant women in Israel and Germany.

The educational attainment of immigrants: Changes over time

Using data pooled across four Current Population Surveys from 1979 to 1988, this paper analyzes the differences in the level and inequality of schooling across immigrant cohorts that differ by period of arrival and region of origin. The decline in schooling attainment of immigrants observed in the 1970s is reversed in the 1980s, as the schooling level of the most recent cohorts has increased. The increase in the 1980s is found among immigrants as a group and among European/Canadian and Asian immigrants but not among Mexican and other Latin American immigrants. The inequality of schooling has been greater among immigrants arriving in the last 20 years compared to earlier post-war cohorts, in part, because of the increasing share among immigrants of the highly educated Asians and low educated Mexican immigrants. Moreover, the inequality of schooling among the foreign born within regions of origin and period of immigration has also exceeded that of the native born.

Earnings Gaps Between Israel's Native-Born Men and Women: 1982 1993

This study examines changes in the earnings gapbetween native-born Israeli Jewish men and women duringthe 1980s and early 1990s. The sample of native-bornIsraeli women was broken into two sub-groups: one of Western origin and the other of Easternorigin. Both were compared to the dominant group in theIsraeli labor market, namely native-born Jewish men ofWestern origin. Three Income Surveys were used for this purpose: 1982, 1987, and 1993. Theresults indicate that almost the entire gender-basedearnings gap is not due to productivity-relatedvariables, and that this figure has not changed muchduring this period.

War and Social Integration: The Effects of the Israeli-Arab Conflict on Jewish Emigration from Israel

Protracted conflicts may affect measures of social integration in dissimilar, even opposite ways. Employing Jewish emigration rates from Israel as a measure of social (dis)integration, I test the effects of two aspects of the Israeli-Arab conflict on emigration rates during 1951-1984: (1) annual military reserve duty and (2) subjective intensity of the conflict or its salience as reflected in the media. These two aspects are hypothesized to affect emigration rates through different mechanisms. Reserve duty constitutes a heavy cost to the individual, which directly affects the majority of Israeli households. It is expected to increase emigration rates by increasing individual costs of living in Israel. Increased salience of the conflict, on the other hand, is likely to attenuate emigration rates via social mechanisms that enhance social cohesion and integration. Results support arguments for opposite effects of the two aspects of conflict on emigration rates.