White/ethnic minority earnings and employment differentials in Britain: evidence from the LFS

It is 20 years since Britain passed legislation to combat racialdiscrimination. Despite this, evidence presented in this papersuggests that Britain's non-white ethnic minorities still donot appear to face a level playing field in the UK labour marketand their relative position does not appear to have improvedsince the 1970s. Native ethnic minorities also appear to befaring little better than their parents. It is in gaining employmentthat the situation is particularly acute.     

Gender earnings differentials in LDCs: The case of Pakistan

Atlantic Economic Journal -     

Gender earnings differentials in Taiwan: A stochastic frontier approach

We examine Taiwan's male–female earnings gaps over the past three decades in order to assess the progress in assimilating women into the labor market. Two alternative methods of evaluating earnings gaps are employed in this paper: the traditional Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition method and the less well-known method of evaluating labor market efficiency. Men and women's earnings are converging during this period (1978–2003) while at the same time there is little change in the level of gender discrimination measured by the standard Oaxaca–Blinder method. Using the labor market efficiency (stochastic frontier) model we find increases in labor market efficiency over time for both males and females; however, females enjoy a much faster rate of increase in efficiency. We conclude that the relative increase in female efficiency represents a decline in discrimination against females.     

Skill compression, wage differentials, and employment: Germany vs the US

Germany's more compressed wage structure is widely viewed asthe main cause of the German-US difference in employment andunemployment, but part of the compression is due to Germanyhaving a narrower distribution of skills than the US. Even adjustedfor skills, however, we find that Germany has a more compressedwage distribution than the US. But relatively little of theUS-German employment difference can be attributed to the compressedwage distribution. We find that jobless Germans have nearlythe same skills as employed Germans and look more like averageAmericans than like low skilled Americans, which runs counterto the wage compression hypothesis. Given these patterns, thepay and employment experience of low skilled Americans is apoor counterfactual for assessing how reductions in pay mightaffect jobless Germans.     

Female-male earnings differentials in the founder countries of the european economic community: An econometric investigation

Summary In this study an attempt was made to find out whether the female-male earnings differentials in the six founder countries of the EEC were caused by the differences in the work characteristics of the two groups or by a systematic bias against women. In cases where discrimination against women appeared to exist an estimate was made of its degree. It was found that in all countries considered, with the exception of the Netherlands, women had lower average earnings even after standardizing for their different work characteristics. In these countries a substantial part of the female-male earnings differential could not be explained by the differences in the work characteristics of women and could be attributed to other factors, among which sexual prejudice seemed the most likely.     

Racial inequality and white employment: An interpretation and test of the bargaining power hypothesis

This article disputes the argument and the evidence used to conclude that white workers are hurt by discrimination against blacks. Racism may increase the bargaining power of white workers if it unifies white ethnics, and may benefit them if it reduces job competition. The distributional consequences of discrimination will vary with the intensity of aggregate unemployment and the degree of racial segmentation in the labor market. The impact of racial inequality on the probability of employment is evaluated with a cross-sectional model using census summary data on SMSAs. Results show that racial inequality improves white male and female employment prospects in 1980, and suggest the same for 1970.     

The effect of public sector employment on the earnings of white and African American males: A sample selectivity approach

This research note uses a sample selection model to measure the earnings premium (or penalty) to public sector employment. A model correcting for both labor force participation and sectoral choice is estimated for both white and African American males. Results indicate that African American males are no better off in the public than in the private sector. Moreover, white males employed in the public sector earn significantly less than their private sector counterparts.     

Assessing black progress: employment,occupation, earnings,income, poverty

Farley discusses changes in employment, occupation, earnings, income, and poverty among US blacks. Among black men, there has been a persistent rise in unemployment since 1960. By the early 1980s, 1 black man out of 8 had dropped out of the labor force, compared to 1 in 20 white men. Some contend that many black men lack the skills to be employed or have personal habits and criminal records which make them unacceptable to employers. Others believe that the expansion of federal welfare programs offers attractive alternatives to men who have limited earnings potential. Still others stress that blacks are concentrated within cities, while the growth of employment is occurring in suburbs. Among those blacks over age 54, labor force participation has declined because of improved Social Security benefits, better private pensions, and the greater availability of Supplemental Security Income. The employment of young blacks compared to whites has deteriorated since 1960. For both races, there has been a steady rise in the employment of women. The recent increases, however, have been great for whites. By the early 1980s, white women caught up with black women in terms of employment. Unlike the indicators of employment itself, there is unambiguous evidence that the occupational distribution of employed blacks has been upgraded and is gradually becoming similar to that of whites. Findings from many studies show that blacks once earned much less than similar whites, but this racial difference has declined among men and has nearly disappeared among women. The proportion of blacks impoverished fell sharply in the 1960s, reaching a minimum of 30% in the early 1970s. Since the early 1970s, blacks have made few gains. The proportion impoverished actually increased and the ratio of black-to-white family income declined. The fact that the earnings of black males are no longer rising faster than those of whites and that there is no longer a migration from southern farms to cities plays a role, but changes in family structure are also important. At all dates, poverty rates have been high and income levels low in families headed by women. In 1984, for example, 52% of the black families with a woman as head of household were below the poverty line, compared to 15% of the black married-couple families. While similar trends are occurring in white families, there has been a sharper increase in the proportion of blacks living in these female-maintained families which have high poverty rates.     

The impact of foreign direct investment on wages and employment

This paper studies the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI)on wages and employment When labor-management bargaining isindustry-wide, two effects of FDI are identified; the collusioneffect and the threat-point effect. It is shown that: (i) FDIalways reduces the negotiated wage; (ii) FDI reduces union employmentand the competitive wage if die union cares more about employmentthan wages or is equally concerned about employment and wages.However, if labor-mingement bargaining is firm-specific andunionization is industry-wide, then the above effects of FDIare substantially reduced.     

The impact of deregulation on employment discrimination in the trucking industry

Past studies of racial discrimination in the for-hire sector of the motor carrier industry find that deregulation is an effective tool for mitigating discrimination. These studies argue that regulation provides a refuge from competition that allows employers to discriminate and pass costs on to consumers. Thus, increased competition of deregulation allows less latitude to discriminate. This study reexamines the impact of deregulation on racial employment in the trucking industry. Specifically, micro-data are used to measure and decompose increased minority participation of for-hire drivers following deregulation. The findings of this paper concur that deregulation increased minority participation in the industry. However, the new findings suggest that only a fraction of this increase can be attributed to employers having less latitude to racially discriminate.     

An analysis of the impact of demand and cost factors on employment

Summary Recently attempts have been made by several European researchers to improve the realism of demand for labour functions by introducing the economic lifetime of machinery as a determinant. One of the more well-known studies is that by Den Hartog and Tjan. The article criticizes their clay-clay vintage model, both on theoretical and empirical grounds. Despite some attractive features, an alternative more Keynesian-oriented analysis is not considered to be wholly satisfactory, either. Finally, a synthesis is developed which should be considered as a starting point for new theoretical and empirical work, and which advocates more attention to the replacement of capital goods, rather than to their scrappage, as is done in most vintage models. Faculty of Economics, University of Amsterdam. I am indebted to J. H. von Eije and H. J. Mastenbroek for their research assistance, and to F. A. G. den Butter, H. den Hartog, J. Weitenberg and S. K. Kuipers for valuable comments on an earlier draft of this article. None of these persons is of course responsible for any remaining errors or omissions. This draft circulated under the same title as Research Memorandum No. 7604 of the Department of Economics of the University of Amsterdam. The memorandum was written winter 1975 and circulated after June 1976. Since that date a considerable amount of papers have been published on the subject and the ideas of the author have also changed somewhat. Nevertheless the original content of Research Memorandum No. 7604 has been largely retained.