Renouncing Personal Names: An Empirical Examination of Surname Change and Earnings
研究来自亚非斯拉夫国家的移民将姓氏改为瑞典式或中性名字后，收入是否显著提高，发现改名后年收入大幅增加，但改名前无影响，且对其他群体无普遍正面效应，支持改名是对歧视的回应。
We study the effects of surname change to Swedish-sounding or neutral names on earnings for immigrants from Asian/African/Slavic countries. To estimate this effect, we exploit the variation resulting from different timing of name changes across individuals during the 1990s. The results imply that there is a substantial increase in annual earnings after a name change, no effects on earnings prior to a name change, and no positive general effects of a new name for other groups that renounced a foreign name. Based on these findings, we argue that these effects are due to name change as a response to discrimination. (c) 2009 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.