Essays on migration and intermarriage premiums

This dissertation contains three essays that study the effects of intermarriage on immigrants' labor market outcomes. The first essay uses the 2000 U.S. Census to examine immigrants in the U.S. as a whole. I use three methods to address the possible endogeneity and selection bias: instrumental variables estimation, a sample selection model, and a counterfactual construction method. All three methods suggest that the causal intermarriage premium received by a typical immigrant is small and perhaps nonexistent. However, I find larger premiums for immigrants from Latin America, Africa, or the Middle East; high school dropouts and immigrants with at least a Bachelor's degree; and immigrants older than twelve upon arrival in the United States.;The second essay estimates the value of access to the U.S. labor market by comparing intermarriage premiums received by Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. Both groups face similar language and cultural obstacles, but Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens by birth. Therefore, only Mexican immigrants can gain new work privileges by marrying a U.S. citizen. Instrumental variables are used to address endogeneity bias. Results indicate a significantly larger intermarriage premium for Mexicans, suggesting that legal advantages are a major mechanism through which intermarriage affects immigrants' wages.;The third essay further studies the nature of the intermarriage premium. The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 provides a case study on the role of legal benefits associated with intermarriage. Using Census data from 1990, this essay studies the immigrant wage gain associated with intermarriage received by two groups of Mexican immigrants who arrived before and after the cutoff date of eligibility. The pre-82 undocumented Mexican workers can obtain legal status through the amnesty while the control group obtains legal status through marriage to a U.S. citizen. Instrumental variables estimates show a significantly larger intermarriage premium for Mexican immigrants who migrated after the cutoff point and no statistically significant intermarriage premium is found in the treatment group. The 35 percent premium gap indicates that legal benefits are the major mechanism through which intermarriage affects immigrants' labor market outcomes.