IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/0683.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Decline in Black Teenage Employment: 1950-1970

Author

Listed:
  • John F. Cogan

Abstract

This paper examines the causes of the decline in black male teenage employment from 1950 to 1970. During this period, the employment-to-population ratio of black youth (age 16-19) declined from 46.8 percent to 27 percent. The white teenage employment ratio, in contrast, remained constant. The primary source of the decline is traced to the virtual demise of the market for low-skilled agricultural labor. All of the black teenage employment decline during this period occurs in the South. The employment ratio among those living outside the South actually increases. Within the South, the entire decline in employment is accounted for by a reduction in agricultural employment. This study argues that technological progress is the principal cause of the agricultural employment decline among black youths. Spurred by the rapid advance and adoption of labor-saving technology, southern agricultural production was transformed from a relatively labor intensive process to a highly capital intensive one. As a result, the demand for low-skilled agricultural labor plummeted. By 1970, a formerly important source of black youth employment virtually ceased to exist. Black teenagers who were displaced from agricultural work were not absorbed by the nonagricultural sector. An additional finding of this paper is that the federal minimum wage acted as an important barrier to nonagricultural employment in the South. The raw data reveal significant reductions in black teenage employment growth in precisely those industries where coverage of the minimum wage was increased : retail trade, construct ion, and the service sector. Regression estimates indicate a quantitatively large minimum wage effect.

Suggested Citation

  • John F. Cogan, 1981. "The Decline in Black Teenage Employment: 1950-1970," NBER Working Papers 0683, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0683
    Note: LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w0683.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peterson, Willis L. & Hayami, Yujiro, 1977. "Technical Change in Agriculture," A Survey of Agricultural Economics Literature, Volume 1: Traditional Fields of Agricultural Economics 1940s to 1970s,, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Mincer, Jacob, 1976. "Unemployment Effects of Minimum Wages," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(4), pages 87-104, August.
    3. Edward W. Tyrchniewicz & G. Edward Schuh, 1969. "Econometric Analysis of the Agricultural Labor Market," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 51(4), pages 770-787.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Holzer, Harry J., 2008. "Living Wage Laws: How Much Do (Can) They Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 3781, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Rosen, Sherwin, 1985. "Implicit Contracts: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 1144-1175, September.
    3. Samara Ahmed & Adil E. Rajput & Akila Sarirete & Asma Aljaberi & Ohoud Alghanem & Abrar Alsheraigi, 2020. "Studying Unemployment Effects on Mental Health: Social Media versus the Traditional Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-14, October.
    4. Lemos Sara, 2005. "Political Variables as Instruments for the Minimum Wage," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-33, December.
    5. Casanova, Luis. & Jiménez, Maribel. & Jiménez, Mónica., 2015. "Calidad del empleo y cumplimiento del salario mínimo en Argentina," ILO Working Papers 994891263402676, International Labour Organization.
    6. Lyu, Syu-Jyun Larry & White, Fred C. & Lu, Yao-Chi, 1984. "Estimating Effects Of Agricultural Research And Extension Expenditures On Productivity: A Translog Production Function Approach," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 16(2), pages 1-8, December.
    7. World Bank, 2005. "Labor Market Adjustment, Reform and Productivity in Colombia : What are the Factors that Matter? Volume 2 : Technical Report," World Bank Publications - Reports 8406, The World Bank Group.
    8. Torok, Steven John, 1982. "International trade in commodities and labor: the case of the importation of Mexican agricultural labor and fresh market winter tomatoes into the US, 1964-1979," ISU General Staff Papers 198201010800008550, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    9. Dany Brouillette & Calista Cheung & Daniel Gao & Olivier Gervais, 2017. "The Impacts of Minimum Wage Increases on the Canadian Economy," Staff Analytical Notes 17-26, Bank of Canada.
    10. Falck-Zepeda, Jose & Horna, Daniela & Smale, Melinda, 2007. "The economic impact and the distribution of benefits and risk from the adoption of insect resistant (Bt) cotton in West Africa," IFPRI discussion papers 718, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. Bosch, Mariano & Manacorda, Marco, 2008. "Minimum wages and earnings inequality in urban Mexico. Revisiting the evidence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19561, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Lee, David R. & Rausser, Gordon C., 1992. "The Structure of Research and Transfer Policies in International Agriculture: Evidence and Implications," 1992 Occasional Paper Series No. 6 197731, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. David Neumark & J.M. Ian Salas & William Wascher, 2013. "Revisiting the Minimum Wage-Employment Debate: Throwing Out the Baby with the Bathwater?," NBER Working Papers 18681, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Luis Eduardo Arango & Paula Herrera & Carlos Esteban Posada, 2008. "El salario mínimo: aspectos generales sobre los casos de Colombia y otros países," Revista ESPE - Ensayos Sobre Política Económica, Banco de la República, vol. 26(56), pages 204-263, June.
    15. Pandelis Mitsis, 2019. "The Impact of the Minimum Wage on Wages and Work in Cyprus," Cyprus Economic Policy Review, University of Cyprus, Economics Research Centre, vol. 13(2), pages 72-101, December.
    16. Jonathan Temple, 2002. "The Costs of Dualism," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 02/532, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    17. Sara Lemos, 2004. "A Menu of Minimum Wage Variables for Evaluating Wages and Employment Effects: Evidence from Brazil," Discussion Papers in Economics 04/3, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    18. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2101-2163 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Norton, George W. & Davis, Jeffrey S., 1979. "Review Of Methods Used To Evaluate Returns To Agricultural Research," Staff Papers 13520, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    20. Meltem Dayioglu & Müşerref Küçükbayrak & Semih Tumen, 2022. "The impact of age-specific minimum wages on youth employment and education: a regression discontinuity analysis," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(6), pages 1352-1377, March.
    21. Caitlin Knowles Myers, 2007. "A Cure for Discrimination? Affirmative Action and the Case of California's Proposition 209," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 60(3), pages 379-396, April.

    More about this item

    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:nbr:nberwo:0683. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.