The Effect of Undergraduate Major Choices on the Earnings of Sub-Saharan African Immigrant and Native-Born College Graduates

A very high percentage of sub-Saharan African college-graduate immigrants in the United States have college degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines compared with native-born college graduates. This study uses a pooled cross-section (2013–2018) from the American Community Survey to compare the distribution of undergraduate majors of sub-Saharan African immigrants and native-born college graduates. We estimate ordinary least square (OLS) earnings functions that include detailed college major variables. We find that undergraduate major area of study is a significant predictor of earnings and that there is an overrepresentation of sub-Saharan African immigrants with high-paying undergraduate majors. However, after controlling for human capital differences, college-educated African immigrants have not achieved pay equity with their native-born counterparts. JEL Classifications: J61, J15, J26, I21

Earnings Inequality and the Intersectionality of Gender and Ethnicity in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Tanzanian Manufacturing

This paper estimates quantile earnings functions with data from the 2004 Tanzanian Household Worker Survey to determine if ethnicity and gender--being female--matters per se and across the distribution of earnings. We find that in the Tanzanian manufacturing sector gender intersects with ethnicity to condition earnings and the return to schooling across the distribution of earnings. This suggests that in Sub-Saharan Africa--at least in Tanzania--labor market policies aimed at eradicating gender earnings inequality may not be effective if not accompanied by policies that also aim to eradicate ethnic inequality.