Research

Working Papers

Assimilation Policy, Integration, and Identity: Evidence from American Indian Boarding Schools
This paper supersedes Coercive Assimilation Policy Across Generations: Evidence from American Indian Boarding Schools

Abstract This paper examines the effects of coercive assimilation policies on integration and cultural attachment among ethnic minorities. I study the off-reservation school system, a historical policy under which U.S. authorities removed Native American children from their communities to distant boarding schools for extended periods of time. I exploit the staggered recruitment patterns of schools and variation in cohort exposure to facilitate causal identification. I show that the off-reservation school system led to cultural assimilation and economic integration among the first generation of children exposed to the programme. However, I also provide evidence that these effects did not come at the expense of cultural attachment, as the same cohorts maintained an ongoing connection to their home communities. In line with the historical literature, my results reveal a nuanced pattern of accommodation of and resistance to the off-reservation school system, highlighting the agency of Native American individuals and communities at the time.

Ideology in Government: Evidence from the Office of Indian Affairs and the Assimilation Era (Submitted) With Eric Chyn and Kareem Haggag
NBER Working Paper #34415

Abstract This paper studies the ideology of government officials and coercive policymaking by examining the Office of Indian Affairs, an institution that held broad authority over the land, education, and legal governance of Indigenous populations in the United States. We digitise the detailed reports of the agency’s bureaucrats and use computational tools to measure the strength of their support for assimilationist policies during the 19th and early 20th centuries. We document major shifts in ideological commitments that coincide with the entry—and eventual exit—of social reformers nominated for high-level agency positions by religious organisations. We find that ideology within the bureaucracy appears to moderate around the turn of the century despite the organisation’s overall continued pursuit of major assimilation policies, such as the promotion of farming and enrolment in off-reservation Indian boarding schools. To examine performance implications of ideology within the bureaucracy, we conclude with an analysis of policy implementation after the passage of the Dawes Act, a landmark law that aimed to dismantle collective land holdings. We provide evidence showing that the agencies with local staff who express greater past commitment to assimilationist goals carried out more land redistribution immediately after Dawes became law.

Work in Progress

The Discovery of the American Tramp: Labels, Attitudes, and Outcomes of the Poor
With Alba Miñano-Mañero
Abstract This paper studies the effects of a new, derogatory label for low-income Americans—the “tramp”—that emerged in the 1870s. We develop a multi-step workflow for identifying historical newspaper articles related to the poor using a combination of natural language processing methods and large language models. We then document a remarkable and persistent increase in the use of the term “tramp” in the late 19th century. Using historical sentiment lexicons, we show that the diffusion of this term was associated with a general deterioration in the representation of the poor. We provide evidence that this shift in labelling had tangible consequences for poor Americans, with higher rates of poverty-related deaths in counties where re-labelling was more pronounced. Our results highlight the important and lasting effects of label adoption and diffusion on the lives of low-income individuals.
Assimilation Policy and Indigenous Political Institutions: Evidence from American Indian Constitutions
With Sara Benetti and Carla Srebot
Abstract This project studies how assimilation policies targeting American Indians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries affected individualism, ethnic identity, and attitudes towards the U.S. government, as measured through the clauses and language used in over 350 newly digitised tribal constitutions and charters. We first demonstrate that there is meaningful variation in the types of clauses and language across constitutions. We then examine how tribal characteristics and historical exposure to government policies—such as Indian schools and land allotment—affected constitutional features. Finally, we employ natural language processing techniques to measure the extent to which these characteristics affected trust and cooperation with the U.S. government, as measured by semantic similarity between constitutions written in the 1930s and a “model” constitution distributed by the Indian Office at the time. This project contributes to our understanding of how assimilation policies influenced Indigenous institutional development and political culture, highlighting the long-term effects of government intervention on tribal sovereignty, collective identity, and intergovernmental relations.

Racial Slurs and Identity: Evidence from Mexican Americans in the U.S. Southwest
With Alba Miñano-Mañero