This project will focus on two trends related to racial differences in economic well-being. The first is an evident retrogression, during the 1980s, in the historical narrowing of the black/white wage gap. The second is a long-term decline in black youth employment.
Our aim i n the wage project will be two-fold. The first, largely descriptive, goal is to compile an accurate portrait of the changing relative economic status of black men during the last two decades. This descriptive portrait will be comprehensive, illustrating the sensitivity of any evaluation to alternative concepts of income (i.e., total money income, market earnings) and samples (i.e., all male workers, all men). our descriptive work will also examine changes in the relative economic status within important sub-classes (schooling and experience). After documenting and comparing the changes that have taken place in the relative income status of these groups, the research will move into the second analytical phase. Our regression analysis will use the 1980 and 1990 Censuses and the' 1967-1992 CPS' to examine the determinants of weekly wages of black and white men. The second component of the project deals with a problem of much longer duration-declining black youth employment. This project will investigate trends in the employment for young black males compared to those for young whites. The research strategy relies on the analysis of combinations of large cross-sectional Census and CPS data files that span the 1940-1992 time frame. These surveys will be used to study the interrelated decisions of young men to attend school, have a job, be unemployed, or remain out of the labor force. The sets of explanatory variables explored will range from personal attributes of the individual and his family, the temporal and special characteristics of the labor markets in which he lives, and the influence of a range OF governmental policies and programs.
| Smith, J P (1997) Wealth inequality among older Americans. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 52 Spec No:74-81 |
