Abstract:
A consistent observation is that black employers tend to hire African Americans at greater rates than their white counterparts. This paper examines the reasons for this pattern using data from the 1992-94 Multi-City Employer Survey, which is a representative sample of firms in Atlanta, Boston, Detroit and Los Angeles. We use standard regression techniques and decomposition analysis and find that black employers are more likely to hire African Americans because they receive applications from blacks, and hire them out of the black applicant pool, at greater rates than white employers. Thus, to the extent that there is concern over the persistent unemployment difficulties of African Americans, having more blacks in positions with hiring authority within firms would help to alleviate this problem.