State bloc versus individual delegate voting at the constitutional convention: Did it make a difference?

Voting at the 1787 Constitutional Convention followed the procedure of requiring state votes to be determined by the majority vote of each state's present delegates, and the outcome of the vote to be decided by majority vote of the states. In establishing the new legislature, the adopted Constitution set rules such that a simple majority of all present representatives would determine the outcome of each legislative vote. We investigate how Convention vote outcomes might have changed if this voting rule was in place for the Convention. Using spatial models on 398 separate roll calls, we identify which vote outcomes would have differed under individual delegate voting. Analysis suggests only 16 of the vote outcomes would have changed but those that were predicted to change included considering unequal representation in the Senate (i.e., similar to representation in the House) and requiring two‐thirds (rather than three‐fourths) of states to ratify constitutional amendments.     

What are You Mixed with: the Effect of Multiracial Identification on Perceived Attractiveness

Studies consistently show that attractiveness is racialized, and in a racial hierarchy that privileges whites at the expense of blacks, white phenotypic characteristics are deemed more attractive than black phenotypic characteristics. This study seeks to examine whether the racialized nature of attractiveness is based on more than just appearance. To that end, I use Add Health data to analyze whether black people who identify as mixed race rather than as a single race are perceived as more attractive even when controlling for phenotype, particularly skin tone, eye color, and hair color.     

Elected Versus Appointed County Commission Executives: Race, Political Favors and Support Facilities

In this paper we explore how blacks influence expenditure and employment decisions of county commission executives. We also explore whether or not this influence varies when county commission executives are elected verses appointed to their positions. The desire to earn votes could mean that elected officials treat voting populations, including blacks, in a manner that is distinctly different from their appointed counterparts. We find that in areas where there is more discretion, elected officials tend to have higher per capita expenditures. However, there does not appear to be any difference in employment practices. We find that having a larger black population is positively related with discretionary spending and employment.     

“Cautiously Optimistic” Comments on “Black Americans in the 21st Century: Should we be Optimistic or Concerned?”

This is a commentary on Angel Harris’ examination of the current state and challenges facing the black community. Harris provides a comprehensive overview of the socio-economic status of the black Americans and questions America’s ability to achieve the American “creed of opportunity”. My response to Harris’ question, “Should we be pessimistic or optimistic”, is that I am cautiously optimistic. My optimism is rooted in postsecondary progress of black despite challenges to affirmative action and the lingering test score gap between blacks and whites. However, I am “cautious” about the willingness of policy makers to use “race targeted” or “wealth-based-tested” programs to arrest practices which hinder employment, income and wealth opportunity.     

Employment implications of a changing health-care system

The American health-care system has undergone rapid growth and structural change over the past 20 years. Because of the increase in expenditures flowing into the system, total employment in the industry has increased significantly. Along with total employment, the employment of black women has also grown. Unfortunately, however, black women continue to be concentrated in the lowest paying of the health occupations. Efforts to improve the occupational distribution of blacks in general and black women in particular are going to be more difficult in the future because of the dominance of cost containment as the nations primary health policy goal.     

The accumulation of property by southern blacks and whites: Individual-level evidence from a South Carolina cotton county, 1910-1919

This paper examines new data on wealth and wealth accumulation by blacks and whites in Calhoun County, South Carolina between 1910 and 1919. Despite focusing on a single county, the data utilized in this paper make it possible to explore property accumulation by southern blacks and whites in new ways. Unlike previous studies, this one provides information on both real quantities and dollar assessments. This breakdown reveals that the rapid accumulation of property by blacks was entirely real and not due in part to an increasingly discriminatory assessment policy. By merging the assessment data with individual-level census records, it is possible to examine how wealth and wealth accumulation were influenced by race, gender, age, occupation, and literacy. In particular, the effect of literacy on the wealth of black men in 1910 was found to be economically strong in high wealth quantiles but weak in low wealth quantiles. By 1919, the impact of literacy on the wealth of black men had become economically important across the board. Furthermore, literacy had a significant influence on the relative size of wealth accumulations but offered little protection against low accumulations.     

Hispanic Self-identification and Birth Weight Outcomes among U.S.- and Foreign-born Blacks

Black infants are more likely to suffer from poor health at birth compared to non-blacks. However, most existing infant health research focuses solely on non-Hispanic blacks and fails to consider the role of ethnic self-identification on infant health disparities. Using 2002 Vital Statistics Natality Data, this paper investigates whether Hispanic ethnicity is related to birth weight among U.S.- and foreign-born black mothers. The results from regression analyses suggest that Hispanic blacks give birth to heavier infants than non-Hispanic blacks. Maternal behaviors such as prenatal care and smoking fail to explain these birth weight differences. However, the observed within-group birth weight differences among blacks are far more modest compared to the black-white birth weight disparities identified in the extant literature. Thus, while it is important to pay attention to within-group differences among blacks, it is still critical to address the needs of black Hispanics with respect to racial disparities in infant health outcomes.     

Management Influence on Investors: Evidence from Shareholder Votes on the Frequency of Say on Pay

The literature on shareholder voting has mostly focused on the influence of proxy advisors on shareholder votes. We exploit a unique empirical setting enabling us to provide a direct estimate of management's influence. Analyzing shareholder votes on the frequency of future say on pay (SOP) votes, we find that a management recommendation for a particular frequency is associated with a 26 percent increase in voting support for that frequency. Additional tests suggest that the documented association is likely to capture a causal effect. Management influence varies across firms and is smaller at firms where perceived management credibility is lower. Compared to firms adopting an annual frequency, firms following management's recommendation to adopt a triennial frequency are significantly less likely to change their compensation practices in response to an adverse SOP vote, consistent with the notion that a less frequent vote results in lower management accountability.     

Race,class, and politics in the black community of Boston

Conclusion We found that there are indeed some slight differences in the electoral behavior of black voters when we separate them into high and low socio-economic areal categories based on the level of median income. These slight differences include turnout rates for primary and general elections and voter registration rates. The higher the socioeconomic status of the black electorate in Boston, the higher the turnout and registration rates for that area tended to be; however, this relationship was not found to be consistent among all the areas selected for study. Despite these differences in electoral behavior or “practices,” our areal model does not suggest any significant political schisms based on the sicioeconomic indicators used. Black voters tended to vote the same way on a number of city and state ballot questions, support the same candidates at both the city and state level, and vote the liberal preference on both issues and candidates regardless of socioeconomic background. In addition, there is some evidence that the higher a black voter is on the socioeconomic scale, the greater his or her tendency will be to vote the liberal position on various issues and candidates. Our model also suggests that black voters will tend to support black candidates regardless of some socioeconomic factors. If this model can be used as an indication of class differences in the black community, then our data show that socioeconomic criteria are not as salient as race in determining the political behavior and preferences of black voters.     

From home to hospital: The evolution of childbirth in the United States, 1928-1940

This paper examines the shift in childbirth from home to hospital that occurred in the United States in the early 20th century. Using a panel of city-level data over the period 1928-1940, we examine the impact on maternal mortality resulting from the shift of childbirth from home to hospital. Results suggest that until the late 1930s when sulfa drugs were developed, medical intervention had a limited impact on maternal mortality. Post-sulfa, the medicalization of childbirth reduced maternal mortality. Regressions estimated separately by race provide mixed evidence as to whether blacks and whites benefited differentially from medical intervention.     

The Scholarly Status of Blacks in the Economics Profession: Have the National Economic Association and the Review of Black Political Economy Mattered?

This paper considers whether the National Economic Association and its journal the Review of Black Political Economy have enhanced the scholarly status of black economists. A bibliometric analysis reveals that while the typical black economist has never published in the Review of Black Political Economy, the share of black economists publishing in the Review of Black Economy approximates the share of all articles published on the economic and political economy of race by black economists, and the share of articles published in the Review of Black Political Economy by black economists appears higher than typical journals in economics—particularly for black economists employed at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We also find that similar to other economics journals non-black economists dominate the share of published articles, and publications in the Review of Black Political Economy appear to be consistent with Lotka’s Law of scientific productivity suggesting that the journal is a standard outlet for research no different from any other science journal. Our results imply a plausible counterfactual that if the National Economic Association and Review of Black Political Economy did not exist, the scholarly status of blacks in the economics profession would have been lower than currently observed.     

The black scholar: An endangered species

This article explores black participation in scholarly careers. Relatively few blacks have been pursuing graduate training to complete research doctorates, especially in the disciplines of engineering, mathematics and physical sciences, where a mere 1 percent of the doctorates granted were awarded to blacks. The article also examines a major determinant of this low rate of black participation—losses from the education pipeline. The analysis covers losses after completion of high school. Although large, these losses do not differ substantially between black students and nonblack students, suggesting that the origins of the low participation of blacks are located at the precollege level. The analysis also finds no substantial differences in participation among high-achieving black and nonblack students. The article closes with a discussion of the role the scholarly community can play in recruiting more black talent to scholarly careers.     

The Differential Effects of Output Shocks on Unemployment Rates by Race and Gender

This article employs a recently developed time-series econometric technique to examine the magnitude and persistence of unanticipated changes in real output on unemployment rates by race and gender. Through the use of generalized impulse response analysis, we measure the extent to which the behavior of unemployment rates of white males, black males, black females, and white females differ in response to real output shocks. The results suggest that, while real output growth reduces the unemployment rate of all demographic groups, the effect is larger and more persistent for blacks than whites and for males than for females. The findings are particularly important for understanding the demographic impacts of policy initiatives aimed at inducing changes in real output growth.     

The anti-tobacco movement in the Progressive Era: A case study of direct democracy in Oregon

Little attention has been given to the cigarette bans that were enacted by many states in the late-19th and early-20th century. The recent study by Alston et al. [Explorations in Economic History 39 (2002) 425] represents the only empirical analysis of this issue. Alston et al., as typical for many other studies of historical regulatory movements, rely on legislative vote outcomes. In this article we examine the only occasion when a cigarette ban was put to a popular vote, in Oregon in 1930, and highlight the benefits of studying direct-democratic votes to assess support for regulatory movements. To study the relationship between the anti-cigarette movement and other reform movements of the era, we compare the determinants of support for the cigarette ban with support for an Oregon alcohol prohibition referendum in 1933. Our results suggest that supporters of both reform movements were more likely to be found in counties with higher percentages of women, evangelical Protestants, and rural residents, which contrasts with Alston et al.’s study of state legislative behavior. In addition, greater support for alcohol prohibition in particular was found in counties with a larger percentage of immigrants and, to a lesser extent, more registered Republicans.     

Black women in employment and training programs

This article examines the past experience of women-with a focus on black women-in employment and training programs. In spite of the fact that women have been underrepresented in these programs and often steered toward training in “traditionally female” occupations, they exhibit higher postprogram earnings gains than males. Overall, however, the training provided has at best shifted women into low-wage clerical fields with average annual earnings barely above the poverty level. Therefore, these programs-taken alone-can not be expected to have a major impact on an important problem facing blacks: welfare dependency.     

Educational Attainment: A Key Factor for Improving the Lagging Rate of Black Entrepreneurship

The difference between the percentage of blacks and whites who are self-employed in the United States is striking. In this paper, we focus on the role of educational achievement in explaining the gap between white and black entrepreneurship. Using data collected through the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED), we identified 1.061 white nascent entrepreneurs (NEs) and 270 black NEs and compared the two groups against each other as well as to white and black comparison groups of non-NEs. The results suggest that in order to improve the rate of black entrepreneurship, more focus is needed on improving black educational achievement.     

Attitudes towards race and poverty in the demand for private education: The case of Mississippi

Most studies of the demand for private education have treated “white flight” as a response to the proportion of the population that is black in a particular area. The present article, by contrast, considers the possibility that this flight may be from poverty rather than race. The article develops an aggregate demand function for private education from which individual behavior may be inferred, and then applies the model to data from Mississippi. The results suggest that prejudice is directed against poor blacks rather than against nonpoor blacks or poor whites.     

The influence of race on rezoning decisions: Equality of treatment in black and white census tracts, 1955–1980

As municipal zoning is political in nature, the equality of zoning protection provided among black and white neighborhoods should be expected to be sensitive to changes in relative political power over time. This article examines the rejection rates for rezoning applications over time in predominantly white and predominantly black census tracts in Atlanta, Georgia. It identifies inequality of treatment as between heavily white and heavily black tracts during a period of no black representation among elected city officials and equality of treatment during a later period when blacks were substantially represented in government.     

The Impact of Medical Education Reform on the Racial Health Status Gap, 1920–1930: A Difference-in-Differences Analysis

The racial impact of a quantity–quality tradeoff in physician supply (implemented through medical education reform) made during an era of racial segregation is assessed. The reform produced differential impacts across race and region. The health status of northern blacks improved the most; that of southern blacks the least. Accordingly, the health status gap between northern whites and blacks diminished, but the gap between southern blacks and every other demographic group increased. The path of northern blacks suggests that access to and high quality of health care are both necessary to close the racial gap in health status that persists today.     

Voting Behaviour in the European Parliament and Economic Governance Reform: Does Nationality Matter?

This paper analyses MEPs’ voting behaviour on all regulations and directives forming the Six-Pack and the Two-Pack together with the key vote required to establish the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Whereas scholarly work has traditionally showed MEPs voting behaviour to be primarily driven by ideology (more specifically, by the MEP’s party group affiliation), we expect to find MEPs’ national origins to play a counterbalancing role and – at least partially – weaken intra-party position on key economic governance matters, where a conflict of interest might exist between creditor and debtor member countries. Findings confirm that national interests and country-level economic variables can predict MEPs’ votes in a considerable number of cases, opening new avenues for future research on territorial cleavages in the European Parliament.