Full Citation

Title: Prejudice, Consumer Discrimination and Racial Wage Dierentials in the US

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2012

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: The wage gap between whites and blacks is substantial in the US. Even when controlling for measured individual characteristics in human capital, studies have shown that a significant residual wage gap remains and is partly due to labor-market discrimination. Charles and Guryan(2008) find that one-quarter of the residual racial wage gap is due to prejudice. However, their empirical specification considers only employer discrimination and therefore does not take into account the existence of consumer discrimination. I add this source of discrimination in adding another discriminatory force : the proportion of jobs in contact with the public. I also construct consistent local labor markets to analyze the interaction between blacks and prejudiced jobs and employers. Using the 1960-2000 Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), the GeneralSocial Survey (GSS) and the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), I show that the racial wage differential responds positively to the relative supply of contact jobs and the proportion of prejudiced individuals in the local population. My empirical results put forward evidence ofcustomer discrimination in the US labor market.

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Laounan, Morgane

Publisher: Boston University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Other, Race and Ethnicity

Countries: