IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v47y2022i30.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does race response shift impact racial inequality?

Author

Listed:
  • Jerônimo Muniz

    (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG))

  • Stanley R. Bailey

    (University of California, Irvine)

Abstract

Background: Previous research posits that racial reclassification, or response shift, may confound measures of racial earnings inequality. However, this claim has not been systematically tested. Objective: We measure racial response shift in Brazil and examine its impact on white-to-nonwhite earnings inequality between survey waves over ten years at nine-month intervals. Methods: We use individual-level linked data from the 2002–2012 Monthly Employment Survey, involving Brazil's six largest metropolitan areas (n = 400,046). We describe the level and pattern of racial reclassification across time and by income rank. We then decompose racial inequality into two components (income and population ratios) to examine the impact of racial response shift on estimates of racial inequality and to construct analytic counterfactuals. Results: Results reveal that 16% of our sample shifted their racial responses between survey waves. Nonetheless, we show that this level of response shift had no substantial impact on estimates of income inequality. We explain the counterintuitive results by demonstrating how bidirectional racial classification flows – lightening and darkening – countervail each other due to their similar income profiles and racial reclassification rates. Contribution: We offer a first empirical analysis of how racial response shift impacts estimates of racial earnings inequality using individual-level linked data from a large-sample survey.

Suggested Citation

  • Jerônimo Muniz & Stanley R. Bailey, 2022. "Does race response shift impact racial inequality?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 47(30), pages 935-966.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:47:y:2022:i:30
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2022.47.30
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol47/30/47-30.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2022.47.30?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edward Telles & Nelson Lim, 1998. "Does it matter who answers the race question? Racial classification and income inequality in Brazil," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 35(4), pages 465-474, November.
    2. Aliya Saperstein & Aaron Gullickson, 2013. "A “Mulatto Escape Hatch” in the United States? Examining Evidence of Racial and Social Mobility During the Jim Crow Era," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(5), pages 1921-1942, October.
    3. Patrick Bayer & Kerwin Kofi Charles, 2018. "Divergent Paths: A New Perspective on Earnings Differences Between Black and White Men Since 1940," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(3), pages 1459-1501.
    4. Leticia Marteleto, 2012. "Educational Inequality by Race in Brazil, 1982–2007: Structural Changes and Shifts in Racial Classification," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(1), pages 337-358, February.
    5. Randall Akee & Maggie R. Jones & Sonya R. Porter, 2019. "Race Matters: Income Shares, Income Inequality, and Income Mobility for All U.S. Races," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(3), pages 999-1021, June.
    6. Karl Eschbach & Khalil Supple & C. Snipp, 1998. "Changes in racial identification and the educational attainment of American Indians, 1970–1990," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 35(1), pages 35-43, February.
    7. Nobles, M., 2000. "History counts: A comparative analysis of racial/color categorization in US and Brazilian censuses," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 90(11), pages 1738-1745.
    8. Carolyn Liebler & Timothy Ortyl, 2014. "More Than One Million New American Indians in 2000: Who Are They?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(3), pages 1101-1130, June.
    9. Bernardo Lanza Queiroz, 2007. "The determinants of male retirement in urban Brazil," Nova Economia, Economics Department, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil), vol. 17(1), pages 11-36, January-A.
    10. C. Y. Cyrus Chu & Lily Jiang, 1997. "Demographic Transition, Family Structure, And Income Inequality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 665-669, November.
    11. Robinson, Sherman, 1976. "A Note on the U Hypothesis Relating Income Inequality and Economic Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(3), pages 437-440, June.
    12. Richard Alba & Tariqul Islam, 2009. "The Case of the Disappearing Mexican Americans: An Ethnic-Identity Mystery," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 28(2), pages 109-121, April.
    13. Vítor Miranda, 2015. "A resurgence of black identity in Brazil? Evidence from an analysis of recent censuses," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(59), pages 1603-1630.
    14. Lam, David, 1986. "The Dynamics of Population Growth, Differential Fertility, and Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 1103-1116, December.
    15. Sylvain Weber, 2010. "bacon: An effective way to detect outliers in multivariate data using Stata (and Mata)," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 10(3), pages 331-338, September.
    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. Jerônimo Muniz & Aliya Saperstein & Bernardo Lanza Queiroz, 2024. "Racial classification as a multistate process," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 50(17), pages 457-472.

    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. Jerônimo Muniz & Aliya Saperstein & Bernardo Lanza Queiroz, 2024. "Racial classification as a multistate process," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 50(17), pages 457-472.
    2. Carolyn A. Liebler & Sonya R. Porter & Leticia E. Fernandez & James M. Noon & Sharon R. Ennis, 2017. "America’s Churning Races: Race and Ethnicity Response Changes Between Census 2000 and the 2010 Census," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(1), pages 259-284, February.
    3. Andrew Francis-Tan & Zheng Mu, 2019. "Racial Revolution: Understanding the Resurgence of Ethnic Minority Identity in Modern China," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 38(5), pages 733-769, October.
    4. Brian Duncan & Stephen J. Trejo, 2015. "Assessing the Socioeconomic Mobility and Integration of U.S. Immigrants and Their Descendants," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 108-135, January.
    5. Natália S. Bueno & Thad Dunning, 2016. "Race, resources, and representation: Evidence from Brazilian politicians," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-144, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Patrick Broman & Tahu Kukutai, 2021. "Fixed not fluid: European identification in the Aotearoa New Zealand census," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 103-138, June.
    7. Barber, Sharrelle & Diez Roux, Ana V. & Cardoso, Letícia & Santos, Simone & Toste, Veronica & James, Sherman & Barreto, Sandhi & Schmidt, Maria & Giatti, Luana & Chor, Dora, 2018. "At the intersection of place, race, and health in Brazil: Residential segregation and cardio-metabolic risk factors in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 67-76.
    8. Ariel J. Binder & Caroline Walker & Jonathan Eggleston & Marta Murray-Close, 2022. "Race and Mobility in U.S. Marriage Markets: Quantifying the Role of Segregation," Working Papers 22-59, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    9. Andrew M. Francis & Maria Tannuri-Pianto, 2013. "Endogenous Race in Brazil: Affirmative Action and the Construction of Racial Identity among Young Adults," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(4), pages 731-753.
    10. Carolyn A. Lieble & Sonya Rastogi & Leticia E. Fernandez & James M. Noon & Sharon R. Ennis, 2014. "America’s Churning Races: Race and Ethnic Response Changes between Census 2000 and the 2010 Census," CARRA Working Papers 2014-09, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    11. Letícia J. Marteleto & Molly Dondero, 2016. "Racial Inequality in Education in Brazil: A Twins Fixed-Effects Approach," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(4), pages 1185-1205, August.
    12. Carolyn A. Liebler & Renuka Bhaskar & Sonya Rastogi, 2014. "Dynamics of Race: Joining, Leaving, and Staying in the American Indian/Alaska Native Race Category between 2000 and 2010," CARRA Working Papers 2014-10, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    13. Perreira, Krista M. & Telles, Edward E., 2014. "The color of health: Skin color, ethnoracial classification, and discrimination in the health of Latin Americans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 241-250.
    14. Jennifer Glick & Seung Han, 2015. "Socioeconomic Stratification from Within: Changes Within American Indian Cohorts in the United States: 1990–2010," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 34(1), pages 77-112, February.
    15. Marina Gindelsky, 2022. "Do transfers lower inequality between households? Demographic evidence from Distributional National Accounts," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(3), pages 1233-1257, July.
    16. Carolyn Liebler & Timothy Ortyl, 2014. "More Than One Million New American Indians in 2000: Who Are They?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(3), pages 1101-1130, June.
    17. Thomas Laidley & Benjamin Domingue & Piyapat Sinsub & Kathleen Mullan Harris & Dalton Conley, 2019. "New Evidence of Skin Color Bias and Health Outcomes Using Sibling Difference Models: A Research Note," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 753-762, April.
    18. Letian Zhang, 2023. "Racial Inequality in Work Environments," American Sociological Review, , vol. 88(2), pages 252-283, April.
    19. Aaron Gullickson & Florencia Torche, 2014. "Patterns of Racial and Educational Assortative Mating in Brazil," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(3), pages 835-856, June.
    20. Ionuț Jianu & Marin Dinu & Dragoș Huru & Alexandru Bodislav, 2021. "Examining the Relationship between Income Inequality and Growth from the Perspective of EU Member States’ Stage of Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-16, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Brazil; racial inequality; earnings; income; race/ethnicity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    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:dem:demres:v:47:y:2022:i:30. 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: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    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.