For simplicity, the regression specification in (1) uses a three-way classification of the
immigration status of the population (i.e., natives, naturalized citizens, and non-citizens). I
account for the immigrant’s refugee status as well as year of entry into the United States
by including these characteristics as regressors in the vector X. The other socioeconomic
characteristics in this vector include: the person’s age, gender, race, and educational attainment,
the number of persons in the household, and the number of children, elderly persons,
and disabled persons in the household.15 The regression also includes the state’s unemployment
rate at time t, as well as the unemployment rate interacted with the dummy variables in the immigration vector I. These interactions control for the possibility that immigrant
outcomes are more sensitive to the business cycle than those of natives (as well as net out
any potential correlation between the generosity variable, G, and the state unemployment
rate