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The Effects of Race and Sex Discrimination Laws

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Author Info
David Neumark
Wendy A. Stock

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Abstract

The question of the effects of race and sex discrimination laws on relative economic outcomes for blacks and women has been of interest at least since the Civil Rights and Equal Pay Acts passed in the 1960s. We present new evidence on the effects of these laws based on variation induced first by state anti-discrimination statutes passed prior to the federal legislation and then by the extension of anti-discrimination prohibitions to the remaining states with the passage of federal legislation. This evidence improves upon earlier time-series studies of the effects of anti-discrimination legislation. It is complementary to more recent work that revisits this question using data and statistical experiments that provide 'treatment' and 'comparison' groups. We examine the effects of race and sex discrimination laws on employment and earnings, in each case focusing on outcomes for black females, black males, and white females relative to white males. Overall, we interpret the evidence as corroborating the general conclusion that race discrimination laws positively impacted the relative employment and earnings of blacks, although the evidence is less dramatic than that reported in other research, and there are some cases (in particular, earnings effects for black males) and periods for which we find little positive impact. We find some evidence that sex discrimination/equal pay laws boosted the relative earnings of black and white females. Finally, we find that sex discrimination/equal pay laws reduced the relative employment of both black women and white women.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 8215.

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Date of creation: Apr 2001
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8215

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J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination
J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  4. Harry Holzer & David Neumark, 2000. "Assessing Affirmative Action," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(3), pages 483-568, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Goldin, Claudia & Margo, Robert A, 1992. "The Great Compression: The Wage Structure in the United States at Mid-century," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 107(1), pages 1-34, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Ashenfelter, Orley & Hannan, Timothy, 1986. "Sex Discrimination and Product Market Competition: The Case of the Banking Industry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 101(1), pages 149-73, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Heckman, James J, 1998. "Detecting Discrimination," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 101-16, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Judith K. Hellerstein & David Neumark & Kenneth R. Troske, 1997. "Market Forces and Sex Discrimination," NBER Working Papers 6321, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Sandra E. Black & Elizabeth Brainerd, 1999. "Importing equality? The effects of increased competition on the gender wage gap," Staff Reports 74, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. [Downloadable!]
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  17. William M. Landes, 1968. "The Economics of Fair Employment Laws," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76, pages 507. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Daron Acemoglu & Joshua Angrist, 1998. "Consequences of Employment Protection? The Case of the Americans with Disabilities Act," Working papers 98-13, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
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  19. Culp, Jerome McCristal, Jr, 1986. "Federal Courts and the Enforcement of Title VII," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 355-58, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. John J. Donohue III & James Heckman, 1991. "Continuous Versus Episodic Change: The Impact of Civil Rights Policy on the Economic Status of Blacks," NBER Working Papers 3894, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  21. 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)
  22. Mincer, Jacob, 1976. "Unemployment Effects of Minimum Wages," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(4), pages S87-104, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  24. Zabalza, Antoni & Tzannatos, Zafiris, 1985. "The Effect of Britain's Anti-discriminatory Legislation on Relative Pay and Employment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 95(379), pages 679-99, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  25. Leonard, Jonathan S, 1990. "The Impact of Affirmative Action Regulation and Equal Employment Law on Black Employment," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 47-63, Fall. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  27. Jinyong Hahn & Petra Todd & Wilbert Van der Klaauw, 1999. "Evaluating the Effect of an Antidiscrimination Law Using a Regression-Discontinuity Design," NBER Working Papers 7131, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Besley, Timothy J. & Payne, A. Abigail, 2005. "Implementation of Anti-Discrimination Policy: Does Judicial Selection Matter?," CEPR Discussion Papers 5211, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Weichselbaumer, Doris & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2003. "The Effects of Competition and Equal Treatment Laws on the Gender Wage Differential," IZA Discussion Papers 822, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Doris Weichselbaumer & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer & Martina Zweimüller, 2007. "Market Orientation and Gender Wage Gaps: An International Study," Economics working papers 2007-12, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. William J. Collins, 2003. "The Housing Market Impact of State-Level Anti-Discrimination Laws 1960-1970," Working Papers 0304, Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Martin Kahanec, 2005. "Two Faces of the ICT Revolution: Desegregation and Minority-Majority Earnings Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 1872, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  6. Kaas, Leo & Lu, Jun, 2009. "Equal-Treatment Policy in a Random Search Model with Taste Discrimination," IZA Discussion Papers 4173, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  7. Tim Besley & Abigail Payne, 2003. "Judicial accountability and economic policy outcomes: evidence from employment discrimination charges," IFS Working Papers W03/11, Institute for Fiscal Studies. [Downloadable!]
  8. David Neumark, 2001. "Age Discrimination Legislation in the United States," NBER Working Papers 8152, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
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