Beyond Averages: Rethinking Asian American Heterogeneity across the Income Distribution

• In Event: Asia and Asian American Section Open Call Paper Session

Abstract

Asian Americans exhibit both the highest median incomes and the highest levels of income inequality among major U.S. racial groups. While prior research emphasizes heterogeneity across ethnic subgroups, often framed through racialization typologies, most analyses rely on averages and implicitly assume a stable ethnic hierarchy. The present study shifts attention from central tendencies to the full earnings distribution to examine whether ethnic stratification is uniform across income strata. Using American Community Survey data (2012–2024) and Recentered Influence Function regressions, we estimate unconditional differences at the 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles of earnings among working-age Asian Americans. Consistent with prior research, we show that hyperselected groups (e.g., Indian, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Americans) have higher average earnings than working-class groups (Bangladeshi, Filipino, Pakistani, Vietnamese) and refugee-origin groups (e.g., Hmong, Cambodian, Laotian, and Burmese Americans). However, the relative positions of ethnic groups shift between the lower tail, middle range, and upper tail. Structural and ethnicity-linked mechanisms, such as education, occupation, geography, linguistic features, and cultural heritage, account for much more of the ethnic gap at the median than at the lower or upper tails. These findings suggest that the mechanisms generating inequality within Asian Americans are distributionally contingent.

Authors

• Xi Song, Columbia University

• HJ Katelyn Kim, University of Pennsylvania

• Andrew Taeho Kim, University of Tennessee-Knoxville