Long-Run Labor Market Effects of Japanese American Internment during World War II on Working-Age Male Internees

Type Journal Article - Journal of Labor Economics
Title Long-Run Labor Market Effects of Japanese American Internment during World War II on Working-Age Male Internees
Author(s)
Volume 23
Issue 3
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2005
Page numbers 491-525
URL http://uh.edu/~achin/research/chin_japanese_internment.pdf
Abstract
In 1942, all Japanese were evacuated from the West Coast and incarcerated in internment
camps. To investigate the long-run economic consequences of this historic episode, I
exploit the fact that Hawaiian Japanese were not subject to mass internment. I find that
the labor market withdrawal induced by the internment reduced the annual earnings of
males by as much as nine to thirteen percent twenty-five years afterwards. This is
consistent with the predictions of an economic model that equates the labor market
withdrawal induced by the internment with a loss of civilian labor market experience or a
loss of advantageous job matches.

Related studies

»