IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/jhriss/v17y1982i1p72-93.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Human Capital Approach to Black-White Earnings Inequality: Some Unsettled Questions

Author

Listed:
  • William A. Darity Jr.

Abstract

The persistence of earnings differences between blacks and whites in the United States has been a topic that has received a substantial amount of attention in both theoretical and empirical research in economics. The differential in earnings typically is tied to racial differences in human capital accumulation. This paper advances a systematic critique of the human capital approach to black-white inequality. Inadequacies are identified in human capital theory as a general theory of inequality as well as a specific theory of racial inequality. The critique suggests that a serious analysis of the black-white earnings gap will require an entirely new approach to the study of racial income inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • William A. Darity Jr., 1982. "The Human Capital Approach to Black-White Earnings Inequality: Some Unsettled Questions," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 17(1), pages 72-93.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:17:y:1982:i:1:p:72-93
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/145525
    Download Restriction: A subscripton is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gregory Fairchild, 2009. "Racial segregation in the public schools and adult labor market outcomes: the case of black Americans," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 467-484, December.
    2. George McCarthy, 1992. "The Role of Unemployment in Triggering Internal Labor Migration," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_75, Levy Economics Institute.
    3. Lucia Foster & Erika McEntarfer & Danielle H. Sandler, 2022. "Diversity and Labor Market Outcomes in the Economics Profession," Working Papers 22-26, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    4. Kimmel, Jean, 1997. "Rural wages and returns to education: Differences between whites, blacks, and American Indians," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 81-96, February.
    5. Maria E. Enchautegui, 1995. "Effects Of Immigrants On The 1980–1990 U.S. Wage Experience," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 13(3), pages 20-38, July.
    6. Thomas Masterson & Ajit Zacharias & Fernando Rios-Avila & Edward N. Wolff, 2019. "The Great Recession and Racial Inequality: Evidence from Measures of Economic Well-Being," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 1048-1069, October.
    7. Sarah F. Small, 2023. "Infusing Diversity in a History of Economic Thought Course: An Archival Study of Syllabi and Resources for Redesign," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 49(3), pages 276-311, June.
    8. Michelle Holder, 2018. "Revisiting Bergmann’s Occupational Crowding Model," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 50(4), pages 683-690, December.
    9. Patricia E. Gaynor & Garey C. Durden, 1997. "The Cost of Being Nonwhite and the Added Cost of Being Female in The South and Southwest," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 27(2), pages 195-209, Fall.
    10. Peggy A. Lovell, 1993. "The Geography of Economic Development and Racial Discrimination in Brazil," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 24(1), pages 83-102, January.
    11. Cecilia Conrad, 1984. "Comments on the Richard McGahey article," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 99-102, June.
    12. Sai Ding & Shi Li & Samuel L. Myers, Jr., 2011. "Inter-temporal Changes in Ethnic Urban Earnings Disparities in China," University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP) Working Papers 201121, University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP).
    13. Kahanec, Martin, 2006. "Ethnic Specialization and Earnings Inequality: Why Being a Minority Hurts but Being a Big Minority Hurts More," IZA Discussion Papers 2050, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Harry Anthony Patrinos & Emmanuel Skoufias, 2007. "Economic Opportunities for Indigenous Peoples in Latin America : Conference Edition," World Bank Publications - Reports 8019, The World Bank Group.
    15. Michelle Holder, 2013. "Introduction to Articles on Black Women and Work," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 23-25, March.
    16. Ron Robert Branker, 2017. "Labour Market Discrimination: the Lived Experiences of English-Speaking Caribbean Immigrants in Toronto," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 203-222, February.
    17. François Combarnous, 1994. "Discrimination et marché du travail : concepts et théories," Documents de travail 02, Groupe d'Economie du Développement de l'Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.
    18. Kahanec, M., 2004. "Social Interaction and the Minority-Majority Earnings Inequality : Why Being a Minority Hurts but being a big Minority Hurts More," Discussion Paper 2004-41, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    19. William M. Rodgers III, 1997. "Male Sub-metropolitan Black-White Wage Gaps: New Evidence for the 1980s," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 34(8), pages 1201-1213, July.
    20. Chiappero-Martinetti, Enrica & Sabadash, Anna, 2014. "Integrating Human Capital and Human Capabilities in Understanding the Value of Education," MPRA Paper 61800, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Patrinos, Harry Anthony & Skoufias, Emmanuel & Lunde, Trine, 2007. "Indigenous peoples in Latin America : economic opportunities and social networks," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4227, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:17:y:1982:i:1:p:72-93. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.