Full Citation

Title: Discrimination and the Effects of Drug Testing on Black Employment

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2011

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: Half of todays US workforce is employed by firms that conduct some form of drug testinga dramatic increase from near-zero levels of testing in the early 1980s. This paper examines the labor market impacts of this large policy change. I incorporate drug testing into a standard Roy model and derive predictions concerning sorting of drug users and demographic groups across the testing and non-testing sectors. Consistent with the model, I find increased employment of non-users in the testing sector following the advent of drug testing. The increase was larger for blacks, a group with higher perceived use rates. Using state-level variation in the timing and nature of drug testing regulation, I also find labor market impacts for blacks that are consistent with discrimination against them in the absence of reliable drug testing. The adoption of pro-testing legislation increases the share of blacks working in the testing sector by 8 to 25%, with the largest shifts among low skilled black men. It also increases blacks benefits coverage (which is associated with firm testing) and raises low skilled black mens wages by at least 4%. Results from antitesting states suggest that employers substitute white women for blacks in the absence of testing.

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Wozniak, Abigail

Publisher: University of Notre Dame

Data Collections: IPUMS CPS

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Other

Countries: