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An Analysis of the Impact of Affirmative Action Programs on Self-Employment in the Construction Industry

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  • David G. Blanchflower
  • Jon Wainwright

Abstract

The main findings of this paper are that despite the existence of various affirmative action programs designed to improve the position of women and minorities in public construction, little has changed in the last twenty five years. We present evidence showing that where race conscious affirmative action programs exist they appear to generate significant improvements: when these programs are removed or replaced with race-neutral programs the utilization of minorities and women in public construction declines rapidly. We show that the programs have not helped minorities to become self-employed or to raise their earnings over the period 1979-2004, using data from the Current Population Survey and the Census, but have improved the position of white females. There has been a growth in incorporated self-employment rates of white women in construction such that currently their rate is significantly higher than that of white men. The data are suggestive of the possibility that some of these companies are 'fronts' which are actually run by their white male spouses or sons to take advantage of the affirmative action programs.

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  • David G. Blanchflower & Jon Wainwright, 2005. "An Analysis of the Impact of Affirmative Action Programs on Self-Employment in the Construction Industry," NBER Working Papers 11793, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11793
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    Cited by:

    1. Aaron K. Chatterji & Kenneth Y. Chay & Robert W. Fairlie, 2014. "The Impact of City Contracting Set-Asides on Black Self-Employment and Employment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(3), pages 507-561.
    2. Blanchflower, David G., 2007. "Entrepreneurship in the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 3130, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. David Blanchflower, 2009. "Minority self-employment in the United States and the impact of affirmative action programs," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 361-396, June.
    4. Justin Marion, 2009. "Firm racial segregation and affirmative action in the highway construction industry," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 441-453, December.
    5. John Lunn & Todd Steen, 2016. "Does Disparity in Self-Employment Rates Imply Discrimination? An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 31(Summer 20), pages 41-56.
    6. Robert W. Fairlie & Alicia M. Robb, 2008. "Race and Entrepreneurial Success: Black-, Asian-, and White-Owned Businesses in the United States," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026206281x, April.
    7. Blanchflower, David G. & Shadforth, Chris, 2007. "Entrepreneurship in the UK," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 3(4), pages 257-364, July.
    8. Matthew C. Sonfield, 2007. "America'S Largest Black-Owned Companies: A 30-Year Longitudinal Analysis," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 12(03), pages 323-338.
    9. Robert Fairlie & Justin Marion, 2012. "Affirmative action programs and business ownership among minorities and women," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 319-339, September.

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    • J4 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets

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