Volume 9, Number 3 (Summer) 1974
Christensen, Sandra, and Keith Bernard. 1974. "The Black-White Earnings Gap." Journal of Human Resources 9(3):376-389.
This paper attempts to provide benchmarks by which we may measure our progress toward eliminating racial discrimination in the labor market. Using projected labor force data, classified by race, sex, and education, we define nondiscriminatory black-white occupational patterns and earnings ratios to the year 2000. We also detail the occupational patterns and earnings ratios which would prevail if labor market discrimination continues unchanged from its 1965 level. Neither of these projections is thought to be a realistic estimate of what will actually happen in the labor market over the coming years; rather, they are designed to serve as standards against which we can measure our performance.
The authors, respectively, are in the Department of Economics, University of Maryland, and the Department of Economics, California State College. This research was supported by a grant to the Project on the Economics of Discrimination, University of Maryland, from the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity, and by the University's Computer Science Center.
© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X