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Black-White Wage Inequality in the 1990s: a Decade of Progress

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  • Kenneth Couch

Abstract

Using Current Population Survey data, we find that the gap between the wages of black and white males declined during the 1990s at a rate of about .60 percentage point per year. Wage convergence was most rapid among workers with less than 10 years of potential experience, with declines in the gap averaging 1.40 percentage points per year. Using standard decomposition methods, we find that greater occupational diversity and reductions in unobserved or residual differences are important in explaining this trend. General wage inequality tempered the rate of wage convergence between blacks and whites during the 1990s. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.

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  • Kenneth Couch, 2002. "Black-White Wage Inequality in the 1990s: a Decade of Progress," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(1), pages 31-41, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ecinqu:v:40:y:2002:i:1:p:31-41
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    1. Card, David & Krueger, Alan B, 1992. "Does School Quality Matter? Returns to Education and the Characteristics of Public Schools in the United States," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(1), pages 1-40, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Canaday, Neil & Tamura, Robert, 2009. "White discrimination in provision of black education: Plantations and towns," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1490-1530, July.
    2. Amitabh Chandra, 2003. "Is the Convergence of the Racial Wage Gap Illusory?," NBER Working Papers 9476, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Susan Turner Meiklejohn, 2002. "Overqualified Minority Youth in a Detroit Job Training Program: Implications for the Spatial and Skills Mismatch Debates," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 16(4), pages 342-359, November.
    4. John S. Heywood & Daniel Parent, 2012. "Performance Pay and the White-Black Wage Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(2), pages 249-290.
    5. Jamie H. Douglas & Michael D. Steinberger, 2015. "The Sexual Orientation Wage Gap for Racial Minorities," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 59-108, January.
    6. David Card & John E. DiNardo, 2002. "Skill-Biased Technological Change and Rising Wage Inequality: Some Problems and Puzzles," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(4), pages 733-783, October.
    7. Richard Burkhauser & Jeff Larrimore, 2008. "Using Internal Current Population Survey Data to Reevaluate Trends in Labor Earnings Gaps by Gender, Race, and Education Level," Working Papers 08-18, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    8. John J. Donohue III, 2005. "The Law and Economics of Antidiscrimination Law," NBER Working Papers 11631, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Frederic Chantreuil & Kévin Fourrey & Thérèse Rebière & Isabelle Lebon, 2020. "Decomposing US Income Inequality à la Shapley: Race Matters, but Gender Too," Working Papers hal-02552244, HAL.
    10. Arthur H. Goldsmith & Darrick Hamilton & William Darity, Jr, 2007. "From Dark to Light: Skin Color and Wages Among African-Americans," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(4).
    11. Kenneth Couch & Robert Fairlie, 2010. "Last hired, first fired? black-white unemployment and the business cycle," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 47(1), pages 227-247, February.
    12. Benjamin Lerch, 2021. "From Blue to Steel-Collar Jobs: The Decline in Employment Gaps?," IdEP Economic Papers 2102, USI Università della Svizzera italiana.
    13. Siwei Cheng & Christopher R. Tamborini & ChangHwan Kim & Arthur Sakamoto, 2019. "Educational Variations in Cohort Trends in the Black-White Earnings Gap Among Men: Evidence From Administrative Earnings Data," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(6), pages 2253-2277, December.
    14. Kenneth Y. Chay & Jonathan Guryan & Bhashkar Mazumder, 2014. "Early Life Environment and Racial Inequality in Education and Earnings in the United States," Working Paper Series WP-2014-28, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    15. Winters, John V. & Hirsch, Barry, 2012. "An Anatomy of Racial and Ethnic Trends in Male Earnings," IZA Discussion Papers 6766, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Srikanth Ramamurthy & Norman Sedgley, 2019. "A Note on School Quality, Educational Attainment and the Wage Gap," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 415-421, June.
    17. Srikanth Ramamurthy & Norman Sedgley, 2015. "Human Capital Choice and the Wage Gap: The Role of Worklife Expectancy and Statistical Discrimination," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 175-187, June.
    18. Huoying Wu, 2007. "Can The Human Capital Approach Explain Life‐Cycle Wage Differentials Between Races And Sexes?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 45(1), pages 24-39, January.

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