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Competition in the Promised Land: Black Migration and Racial Wage Convergence in the North, 1940-1970

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Leah Platt Boustan

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Abstract

In the mid-twentieth century, relative black wage growth in the North lagged behind the Jim Crow South. Inter-regional migration may explain this trend. Four million black southerners moved North from 1940 to 1970, more than doubling the northern black population. Black migrants will exert more competitive pressure on black wages if blacks and whites are imperfect substitutes. I use variation in the relative black-white migrant flows across skill groups to estimate the elasticity of substitution by race in the northern economy. I then calculate a counterfactual rate of black-white wage convergence in the North in the absence of southern migration. Migration slowed the pace of northern convergence by 50 percent, more than accounting for the regional gap. Ongoing migration appears to have been an impediment to black economic assimilation in the urban North.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 13813.

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Date of creation: Feb 2008
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13813

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
N22 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-

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    Other versions:
  6. James J. Heckman & Brook S. Payner, 1989. "Determining the Impact of Federal Antidiscrimination Policy on the Economic Status of Blacks: A Study of South Carolina," NBER Working Papers 2854, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. William J. Collins, 2001. "Race, Roosevelt, and Wartime Production: Fair Employment in World War II Labor Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 272-286, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Richard Butler & James J. Heckman, 1977. "The Government's Impact on the Labor Market Status of Black Americans: A Critical Review," NBER Working Papers 0183, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Card, David, 2001. "Immigrant Inflows, Native Outflows, and the Local Labor Market Impacts of Higher Immigration," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(1), pages 22-64, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Card, David & Krueger, Alan B, 1992. "School Quality and Black-White Relative Earnings: A Direct Assessment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 107(1), pages 151-200, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  14. George J. Borjas, 2003. "The Labor Demand Curve Is Downward Sloping: Reexamining The Impact Of Immigration On The Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 118(4), pages 1335-1374, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Smith, James P & Welch, Finis R, 1989. "Black Economic Progress after Myrdal," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 27(2), pages 519-64, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Margo, Robert A, 1991. "Segregated Schools and the Mobility Hypothesis: A Model of Local Government Discrimination," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 106(1), pages 61-73, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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