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Title: Changes in Black-White Inequality: Evidence from the Boll Weevil
Citation Type: Working Paper
Publication Year: 2021
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Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of a large negative agricultural shock, the boll weevil, on racial income gaps in the first half of the twentieth century. We draw on complete count census data to generate a new large linked sample of Black and white fathers and their sons. Fathers are observed before and after the arrival of the boll weevil in their county, and their sons are observed in their father’s household as children and again in 1940 as adults. In race specific difference-in-differences specifications and in triple differences specifications, we find that the boll weevil differentially affected wages of Black sons born after its arrival. Relative to white sons born after the boll weevil, Black sons born after the boll weevil saw a 6%increase in their wages. The magnitude of the effect is similar when the sample is constrained to sons whose father stayed in the South and to sons who stayed in the South. Evidence on changes in fertility and heights suggests that the relative gains were driven by improvements in early life conditions for Black sons born after the weevil’s arrival. The magnitude of the effect of the boll weevil on the Black-white wage gap can be better understood by comparing it with changes between 1940 and 1950, a period of rapid convergence. The boll weevil caused the Black-white wage gap to fall by roughly half of the decline between 1940 and 1950 in the South or a third of the decline nationally.
Url: http://www.nber.org/papers/w27101
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Authors: Clay, Karen; Schmick, Ethan J.; Troesken, Werner
Series Title: NBER Working Paper Series
Publication Number: 27101
Institution: National Bureau of Economic Research
Pages: 1-78
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Data Collections: IPUMS USA - Ancestry Full Count Data
Topics: Family and Marriage, Poverty and Welfare, Race and Ethnicity
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