Jeremy Boissevain
Jeremy Boissevain, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Amsterdam
Ethnic Economies provides a very clear, comprehensive discussion of the complex field of ethnicity, entrepreneurship and economic context. While designed for classroom use, the book's overview and stand on controversial issues and its excellent documentation and US data also make it an essential tool for scholars, especially those working outside the United States.
Jan Rath
Jan Rath, Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (IMES), University of Amsterdam
Already in the early 1970s, Ivan Light pioneered research on so-called ethnic resources of (immigrant) entrepreneurs. Now, almost three decades later, he and Steven Gold comprehensively wrap up the by now enormous body of academic literature on ethnic economies in the United States--a truly impressive achievement. They offer a superb panorama that bears testimony to the leading position of American economic sociologists in the field of immigration and, at the same time, making a strong theoretically as well as empirically founded argument for economic-sociological research in general.
Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama, First Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia
Light and Gold's Ethnic Economies provides a wealth of data to back up a commonsense observation ignored by most economists: that economic life in contemporary America continues to be organized along ethnic lines, and that ethnic groups' differing endowments of human, social, and cultural capital go a long way to explaining their economic success. An incredibly valuable resource for social scientists and for general readers alike who are interested in the impact of ethnicity on contemporary American life.
Roger Waldinger
Roger Waldinger, University of California, Los Angeles
Ethnicity is alive and well, in part because it turns out to serve tangible ends. Those who want to know how and why, need to read Light and Gold's Ethnic Economies. Beautifully written and trenchantly argued, this book distills a vast, inter-disciplinary, and international literature in a way that makes it accessible to the novice, and yet stimulating for the experienced scholar. A work to be valued, not just by sociologists, but by economists, anthropologists, and historians alike.
Alejandro Portes
Alejandro Portes, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Ethnic Economies is a thorough and systematic incursion into a topic of increasing importance. The book puts paid to the persistent assumption that only salaried employment in the general labor market counts. It shows instead how 'small' can be 'big' when it comes to promoting the survival and economics advancement of minorities. Light and Gold have produced a complex, textured argument well worth studying by those interested in ethnic inequality, success and failure.
