Full Citation
Title: A Divergent View on Black-White Earnings Convergence
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2009
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI:
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: We pursue two primary tasks in this paper. Our first task is to provide empiricalevidence that controlling for location matters significantly in assessing the degree ofconvergence in earnings over the period from 1940-2000. We use data from the IntegratedPublic Use Micro Samples for the 1940 to 2000 Censuses to explore this question. We find littleevidence of black-white earnings convergence since 1950 in many cites. For instance, we findthat once we condition on education, age, and location, black males earned 35 and 37 percent ofwhat comparable white males made in 1950 in Chicago and New York. By 2000, however, theearnings gap had increased to 45 and 41 percent in Chicago and New York. Our second task isto develop a theoretical model that can help us interpret the evidence we present and provideinsights into important issues of policy with respect to earnings disparities. Not the least of theseis the conclusion that in an environment of significant migration a careful view of the socialwelfare implications of the apparent convergence must go beyond any simple analysis ofchanges in the earnings gap.
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Wessel, Mark; Black, Dan; Kolesnikova, Natalia; Sanders, Seth; Taylor, Lowell
Publisher: University of Chicago
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Poverty and Welfare, Race and Ethnicity
Countries: