Differential returns on education by ethnicity and nativity in a cohort of older white and Asian Americans

Asian Americans generally have lower risk of dementia than white Americans. Education likely protects against dementia via direct development of cognitive reserve and indirectly via income and material resources. However, the protective effects of education may be weaker among Asian Americans due to lower income returns among the foreign‐born. We hypothesized that: (1) the effects of education may be weaker among Asians than whites; (2) the effects of education are weaker among foreign‐born than US‐born individuals.