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The Emergence, persistence, and recent widening of the racial unemployment gap

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Author Info
Robert W. Fairlie
William A. Sundstrom
Abstract

Census data show that the ratio of black to white unemployment rates, currently in excess of 2:1, was small or nonexistent before 1940, widened dramatically during the 1940s and 1950s, and widened again in the 1980s. The authors decompose changes in the unemployment gap over the years 1880-1990 to identify the separate contributions of changes in observable worker characteristics and shifts in labor demand. Nearly all of the widening of the gap during the 1940s and 1950s can be attributed to regional shifts of workers and declining demand in markets where black workers were concentrated. After 1970, improvements in the relative educational status of black workers would have narrowed the unemployment gap slightly, but demand shifts adverse to black workers more than canceled out these gains. (Abstract courtesy JSTOR.)

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Publisher Info
Article provided by ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University in its journal ILR Review.

Volume (Year): 52 (1999)
Issue (Month): 2 (January)
Pages: 252-270
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Handle: RePEc:ilr:articl:v:52:y:1999:i:2:p:252-270

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  1. Robert W. Fairlie & Bruce D. Meyer, . "Trends in Self-Employment Among White and Black Men: 1910 - 1990," IPR working papers 99-1, Institute for Policy Resarch at Northwestern University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Christopher J. O'Leary & Robert A. Straits, 2000. "Intergovernmental Relations and Employment Policy: The United States Experience," Staff Working Papers 00-60, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Kenneth A. Couch & Robert Fairlie, 2005. "Last Hired, First Fired? Black-White Unemployment and the Business Cycle," Working papers 2005-50, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Harry J. Holzer & Paul Offner, 2001. "Trends in Employment Outcomes of Young Black Men, 1979-2000," JCPR Working Papers 245, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
  5. Horrace, William C. & Oaxaca, Ronald L., 2003. "New Wine in Old Bottles: A Sequential Estimation Technique for the LPM," IZA Discussion Papers 703, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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