IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp3748.html

The Measurement of Racial Discrimination in Pay between Job Categories: Theory and Test

Author

Listed:
  • Bodvarsson, Örn B.

    (Retired)

  • Sessions, John G.

    (Newcastle University)

Abstract

The traditional model of taste discrimination in labor markets presumes perfect substitution, making it unsuitable for the measurement of discrimination across job assignments. We extend the model to explain cross-assignment discrimination and test it on data from Major League Baseball. A competitive firm with a Generalized Leontief production function fills each job assignment with whites and nonwhites in an environment of customer prejudice. According to the model, cross-assignment discrimination depends upon racial productivity differences, the productivity x prejudice interaction, technology, relative labor supply and racial integration. We find strong evidence of ceteris paribus racial salary differences between hitters and pitchers.

Suggested Citation

  • Bodvarsson, Örn B. & Sessions, John G., 2008. "The Measurement of Racial Discrimination in Pay between Job Categories: Theory and Test," IZA Discussion Papers 3748, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3748
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp3748.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grant, James H & Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1981. "Labor Market Competition among Youths, White Women and Others," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(3), pages 354-360, August.
    2. Kahn, Lawrence M, 1991. "Customer Discrimination and Affirmative Action," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 29(3), pages 555-571, July.
    3. Hashimoto, Masanori & Kochin, Levis, 1980. "A Bias in the Statistical Estimation of the Effects of Discrimination," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 18(3), pages 478-486, July.
    4. Borjas, George J, 1983. "The Substitutability of Black, Hispanic, and White Labor," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 21(1), pages 93-106, January.
    5. George J. Borjas, 1987. "Immigrants, Minorities, and Labor Market Competition," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 40(3), pages 382-392, April.
    6. Bodvarsson, Orn B. & Partridge, Mark D., 2001. "A supply and demand model of co-worker, employer and customer discrimination," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 389-416, June.
    7. Altonji, Joseph G. & Blank, Rebecca M., 1999. "Race and gender in the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 48, pages 3143-3259, Elsevier.
    8. Kahanec, Martin, 2006. "The Substitutability of Labor of Selected Ethnic Groups in the US Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 1945, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Diewert, W E, 1971. "An Application of the Shephard Duality Theorem: A Generalized Leontief Production Function," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(3), pages 481-507, May-June.
    10. Grossman, Jean Baldwin, 1982. "The Substitutability of Natives and Immigrants in Production," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 64(4), pages 596-603, November.
    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. repec:eid:wpaper:08/10 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. O B Bodvarsson & John Sessions, 2010. "Nationality Discrimination in the Labor Market: Theory and Test," Department of Economics Working Papers 8/10, University of Bath, Department of Economics.
    3. Bodvarsson, Orn B. & Sessions, John G., 2011. "The measurement of pay discrimination between job assignments," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 297-309, June.

    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. Bodvarsson, Őrn B. & Papps, Kerry L. & Sessions, John G., 2014. "Cross-assignment discrimination in pay: A test case of major league baseball," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 84-95.
    2. Bodvarsson, Orn B. & Sessions, John G., 2011. "The measurement of pay discrimination between job assignments," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 297-309, June.
    3. Kahanec, Martin, 2006. "Ethnic Specialization and Earnings Inequality: Why Being a Minority Hurts but Being a Big Minority Hurts More," IZA Discussion Papers 2050, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Kahanec, Martin, 2006. "The Substitutability of Labor of Selected Ethnic Groups in the US Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 1945, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Liesbet Okkerse, 2008. "How To Measure Labour Market Effects Of Immigration: A Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 1-30, February.
    6. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:429-471 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Bodvarsson, Orn B. & Partridge, Mark D., 2001. "A supply and demand model of co-worker, employer and customer discrimination," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 389-416, June.
    8. Gilles Grenier, 1992. "L’immigration et les revenus relatifs des femmes, des jeunes et des personnes peu scolarisées au Canada," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 68(4), pages 697-713.
    9. O B Bodvarsson & John Sessions, 2010. "Nationality Discrimination in the Labor Market: Theory and Test," Department of Economics Working Papers 8/10, University of Bath, Department of Economics.
    10. Kahanec, Martin & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2008. "Migration in an Enlarged EU: A Challenging Solution?," IZA Discussion Papers 3913, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Asadul Islam, 2009. "The substitutability of labor between immigrants and natives in the Canadian labor market: circa 1995," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(1), pages 199-217, January.
    12. Hamermesh, Daniel S., 1987. "The demand for labor in the long run," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & R. Layard (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 8, pages 429-471, Elsevier.
    13. Kahanec, M., 2006. "Social interaction in the labor market : Essays on earnings inequality, labor substitutability, and segregation," Other publications TiSEM 9591d415-dea7-4f42-89e8-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    14. Teresa Ghilarducci & Michael Papadopoulos & Siavash Radpour, 2017. "Relative Wages in Aging America: The Baby Boomer Effect," SCEPA working paper series. 2017-03, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    15. Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Kahanec, Martin, 2008. "Migration, the Quality of the Labour Force and Economic Inequality," CEPR Discussion Papers 6899, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Aslan Zorlu & Joop Hartog, 2000. "The Effect of Immigration on Native Earnings," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 00-015/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    17. Hammer, Luisa & Hertweck, Matthias Sebastian, 2022. "EU Enlargement and (Temporary) Migration: Effects on Labour Market Outcomes in Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264082, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    18. Thomas Bauer, 1998. "Do Immigrants Reduce Natives' Wages? Evidence from Germany," Departmental Working Papers 199802, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    19. David Card, 2009. "Immigration and Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 1-21, May.
    20. Marie Howland & Doan Nguyen, 2010. "The Impact of Immigration on Four Low-Wage Industries in the 1990s," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 24(2), pages 99-109, May.
    21. Abdurrahman Aydemir & George J. Borjas, 2011. "Attenuation Bias in Measuring the Wage Impact of Immigration," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 69-113, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination

    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:iza:izadps:dp3748. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.