The role of the family in immigrants' labor-market Activity: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations
评估了移民家庭劳动力供给行为的几种解释，发现传统工资同化模型不成立，而家庭投资模型（妻子从事低端工作以资助丈夫的人力资本投资）更能解释数据模式。
The authors evaluate some explanations of immigrants' family labor-supply behavior. Upon arrival, immigrant husbands work less than natives but immigrant wives work more. A conventional labor-supply model uses wage assimilation to explain these differences but is not supported by the data. More favorable results are obtained for the 'family investment model, ' in which wives in immigrant families take on 'dead-end' jobs to finance their husbands' investments in human capital. The authors conclude that family composition is an important correlate of immigrants' assimilation and the family investment model can account for many of the patterns in the data. Copyright 1997 by American Economic Association.