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On the Blurring of the Color Line: Wages and Employment for Black Males of Different Skin Tones

Author

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  • Daniel Kreisman

    (Georgia State University, Department of Economics)

  • Marcos A. Rangel

    (Duke University, Sanford School of Public Policy)

Abstract

We evaluate the role skin color plays in earnings and employment for black males in the NLSY97. By applying a novel, scaled measure of skin tone to a nationally representative sample and by estimating the evolution of labor market differentials over time, we bridge a burgeoning literature on skin color with more established literatures on wage differentials and labor market discrimination. We find that while intraracial wage gaps widen with experience, gaps between the lightest-skinned black workers and whites remain constant, suggesting that a blurring of the color line elicits subtle yet meaningful variation in earnings differentials over time. © 2015 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Kreisman & Marcos A. Rangel, 2015. "On the Blurring of the Color Line: Wages and Employment for Black Males of Different Skin Tones," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(1), pages 1-13, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:97:y:2015:i:1:p:1-13
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    File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/REST_a_00464
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Srikant Devaraj & Pankaj C. Patel, 2017. "Skin Tone and Self-Employment: is there an Intra-Group Variation among Blacks?," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 44(1), pages 137-166, June.
    2. JooHee Han, 2020. "Does Skin Tone Matter? Immigrant Mobility in the U.S. Labor Market," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(2), pages 705-726, April.
    3. Mavisakalyan, Astghik, 2018. "Do employers reward physical attractiveness in transition countries?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 38-52.
    4. Yariv Fadlon & Sophie Tripp, 2015. "The gray area: high school dropout likelihood among skin tone levels of black males," Econometrics Letters, Bilimsel Mektuplar Organizasyonu (Scientific letters), vol. 2(2), pages 1-11.
    5. Victor Hugo de Oliveira & José Raimundo Carvalho, 2024. "Measuring skin color inequality in women's health in Northeast Brazil: Evidence from the PCSVDFMulher survey," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 3-11, January.
    6. Cai, Zhengyu & Maguire, Karen & Winters, John V., 2019. "Who benefits from local oil and gas employment? Labor market composition in the oil and gas industry in Texas and the rest of the United States," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    7. Hersch, Joni, 2024. "Colorism and Immigrant Earnings in the United States, 2015–2024," IZA Discussion Papers 17397, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Daniel Kreisman & Kevin Stange, 2020. "Vocational and Career Tech Education in American High Schools: The Value of Depth Over Breadth," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 15(1), pages 11-44, Winter.
    9. Brunori, Paolo & Hufe, Paul & Mahler, Daniel Gerszon, 2021. "The Roots of Inequality: Estimating Inequality of Opportunity from Regression Trees and Forests," IZA Discussion Papers 14689, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Joanna Tyrowicz & Magdalena Smyk, 2019. "Wage Inequality and Structural Change," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 503-538, January.
    11. Manuel Hermosilla & Fernanda Gutiérrez-Navratil & Juan Prieto-Rodríguez, 2018. "Can Emerging Markets Tilt Global Product Design? Impacts of Chinese Colorism on Hollywood Castings," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(3), pages 356-381, May.
    12. Srikant Devaraj & Narda R Quigley & Pankaj C Patel, 2018. "The effects of skin tone, height, and gender on earnings," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, January.
    13. Cai, Zhengyu & Maguire, Karen & Winters, John V., 2018. "Who Benefits from Local Oil and Gas Employment? Labor Market Composition in the Oil and Gas Industry in Texas," GLO Discussion Paper Series 246, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    14. Astghik Mavisakalyan, 2016. "Looks matter: Attractiveness and employment in the former soviet union," Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre Working Paper series WP1604, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School.
    15. Brunori, Paolo & Hufe, Paul & Mahler, Daniel, 2023. "The roots of inequality: estimating inequality of opportunity from regression trees and forests," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118220, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Tamar Kricheli Katz & Tali Regev & Shay Lavie & Haggai Porat & Ronen Avraham, 2020. "Those who tan and those who don’t: A natural experiment on colorism," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-14, July.
    17. Marcos Rangel, 2015. "Is Parental Love Colorblind? Human Capital Accumulation within Mixed Families," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 42(1), pages 57-86, June.
    18. Carvalho, J.R. & de Oliveira, V.H. & Ferreira Soares, S.P., 2023. "Skin Color Gap within Couples and Intimate Partner Violence in Northeast, Brazil: Evidence from the PCSVDFMulher," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 23/01, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    19. Robert L. Reece, 2021. "The Gender of Colorism: Understanding the Intersection of Skin Tone and Gender Inequality," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 47-55, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    intraracial; intraracial wage gap; wage gap; wage differentials; labor market; labor market discrimination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General

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