IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wop/jopovw/228.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why Are Black Employers More Likely to Hire African Americans than White Employers?

Author

Listed:
  • Michael A. Stoll
  • Steven Raphael
  • Harry J. Holzer

Abstract

A consistent observation is that black employers tend to hire African Americans at greater rates than their white counterparts. This paper examines the reasons for this pattern using data from the 1992-94 Multi-City Employer Survey, which is a representative sample of firms in Atlanta, Boston, Detroit and Los Angeles. We use standard regression techniques and decomposition analysis and find that black employers are more likely to hire African Americans because they receive applications from blacks, and hire them out of the black applicant pool, at greater rates than white employers. Thus, to the extent that there is concern over the persistent unemployment difficulties of African Americans, having more blacks in positions with hiring authority within firms would help to alleviate this problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael A. Stoll & Steven Raphael & Harry J. Holzer, 2001. "Why Are Black Employers More Likely to Hire African Americans than White Employers?," JCPR Working Papers 228, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:wop:jopovw:228
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Harry J. Holzer & Keith R. Ihlanfeldt, 1998. "Customer Discrimination and Employment Outcomes for Minority Workers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 113(3), pages 835-867.
    2. William J. Carrington & Kristin McCue & Brooks Pierce, 2000. "Using Establishment Size to Measure the Impact of Title VII and Affirmative Action," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 35(3), pages 503-523.
    3. Steven Raphael & Michael A. Stoll, 2000. "Can Boosting Minority Car-Ownership Rates Narrow Inter-Racial Employment Gaps," JCPR Working Papers 200, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    4. Becker, Gary S., 1971. "The Economics of Discrimination," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 2, number 9780226041162, September.
    5. Michael A. Stoll & Harry J. Holzer & Keith R. Ihlanfeldt, 2000. "Within cities and suburbs: Racial residential concentration and the spatial distribution of employment opportunities across sub-metropolitan areas," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 207-231.
    6. Harry J. Holzer, 1998. "Why Do Small Establishments Hire Fewer Blacks Than Large Ones?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(4), pages 896-914.
    7. Holzer, Harry J. & Reaser, Jess, 2000. "Black Applicants, Black Employees, and Urban Labor Market Policy," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 365-387, November.
    8. Stoll, Michael A., 1999. "Spatial Job Search, Spatial Mismatch, and the Employment and Wages of Racial and Ethnic Groups in Los Angeles," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 129-155, July.
    9. Holzer Harry J. & Ihlanfeldt Keith R. & Sjoquist David L., 1994. "Work, Search, and Travel among White and Black Youth," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 320-345, May.
    10. Harry J. Holzer & David Neumark, 2000. "What Does Affirmative Action Do?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 53(2), pages 240-271, January.
    11. Marc Bendick & Charles Jackson & Victor Reinoso, 1994. "Measuring employment discrimination through controlled experiments," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 25-48, June.
    12. Raphael, Steven, 1998. "The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis and Black Youth Joblessness: Evidence from the San Francisco Bay Area," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 79-111, January.
    13. Harry J. Holzer & Keith R. Ihlanfeldt, 1996. "Spatial factors and the employment of blacks at the firm level," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue May, pages 65-86.
    14. Raphael, Steven & Stoll, Michael, 2000. "Can Boosting Minority Car-Ownership Rates Narrow Inter-Racial Employment Gaps?," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt4fq193gk, University of California Transportation Center.
    15. Timothy Bates, 1994. "Utilization of minority employees in small business: A comparison of nonminority and black-owned urban enterprises," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 113-121, June.
    16. Michael A. Stoll & Steven Raphael, 2000. "Racial Differences in Spatial Job Search Patterns: Exploring the Causes and Consequences," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 76(3), pages 201-223, July.
    17. Raphael, Steven & Stoll, Michael A. & Holzer, Harry J., 2000. "Are Suburban Firms More Likely to Discriminate against African-Americans?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 485-508, November.
    18. Daniel Immergluck, 1996. "What employers want: Job prospects for less-educated workers," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 24(4), pages 135-143, June.
    19. Harry J. Holzer, 1998. "Employer Skill Demands and Labor Market Outcomes of Blacks and Women," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 52(1), pages 82-98, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Fairlie, Robert, 2020. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Business Owners: The First Three Months after Social-Distancing Restrictions," MPRA Paper 113127, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Robert Fairlie, 2020. "The impact of COVID‐19 on small business owners: Evidence from the first three months after widespread social‐distancing restrictions," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 727-740, October.
    3. Robert Fairlie & Frank M. Fossen, 2022. "Did the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program get disbursed to minority communities in the early stages of COVID-19?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 829-842, February.
    4. Robert W. Fairlie & Frank Fossen, 2021. "Did the $660 Billion Paycheck Protection Program and $220 Billion Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program Get Disbursed to Minority Communities in the Early Stages of COVID-19?," NBER Working Papers 28321, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Robert Fairlie, 2024. "The impacts of COVID‐19 on racial inequality in business earnings," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(1), pages 258-288, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Laurent Gobillon & Harris Selod & Yves Zenou, 2007. "The Mechanisms of Spatial Mismatch," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(12), pages 2401-2427, November.
    2. Michael A. Stoll & Steven Raphael & Harry J. Holzer, 2004. "Black Job Applicants and the Hiring Officer's Race," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 57(2), pages 267-287, January.
    3. Raphael, Steven & Stoll, Michael A. & Holzer, Harry J., 2000. "Are Suburban Firms More Likely to Discriminate against African-Americans?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 485-508, November.
    4. Holzer, Harry J. & Reaser, Jess, 2000. "Black Applicants, Black Employees, and Urban Labor Market Policy," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 365-387, November.
    5. Michael A. Stoll, 2005. "Geographical Skills Mismatch, Job Search and Race," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(4), pages 695-717, April.
    6. David Neumark & Harry Holzer, 2000. "Assessing Affirmative Action," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(3), pages 483-568, September.
    7. Steven Raphael & Michael A. Stoll, 2000. "Can Boosting Minority Car-Ownership Rates Narrow Inter-Racial Employment Gaps," JCPR Working Papers 200, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    8. Harry J. Holzer & John M. Quigley & Steven Raphael, 2003. "Public transit and the spatial distribution of minority employment: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 415-441.
    9. Jacquemet, Nicolas & Yannelis, Constantine, 2012. "Indiscriminate discrimination: A correspondence test for ethnic homophily in the Chicago labor market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 824-832.
    10. Baum, Charles L., 2009. "The effects of vehicle ownership on employment," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 151-163, November.
    11. Harry J. Holzer & Michael A. Stoll, 2003. "Employer Demand for Welfare Recipients by Race," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 210-241, January.
    12. Patacchini, Eleonora & Zenou, Yves, 2005. "Spatial mismatch, transport mode and search decisions in England," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 62-90, July.
    13. Laurent Gobillon & Harris Selod & Yves Zenou, 2002. "Spatial Mismatch : From the Hypothesis of the Theories," Working Papers 2002-57, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    14. Gary Painter & Cathy Yang Liu & Duan Zhuang, 2007. "Immigrants and the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis: Employment Outcomes among Immigrant Youth in Los Angeles," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(13), pages 2627-2649, December.
    15. Zenou, Yves, 2009. "Search in cities," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 607-624, August.
    16. Michael A. Stoll & Harry J. Holzer & Keith R. Ihlanfeldt, 2000. "Within cities and suburbs: Racial residential concentration and the spatial distribution of employment opportunities across sub-metropolitan areas," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 207-231.
    17. Zenou, Yves & Patacchini, Eleonora, 2003. "Mismatch, Transport Mode and Search Decisions in England," CEPR Discussion Papers 3968, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Picard, Pierre M. & Zenou, Yves, 2015. "Urban Spatial Structure, Employment and Social Ties: European versus American Cities," IZA Discussion Papers 9166, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Harris Selod & Yves Zenou, 2006. "City Structure, Job Search and Labour Discrimination: Theory and Policy Implications," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(514), pages 1057-1087, October.
    20. Gautier, Pieter A. & Zenou, Yves, 2010. "Car ownership and the labor market of ethnic minorities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 392-403, May.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:wop:jopovw:228. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Thomas Krichel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/jcuchus.html .

    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.