Civil Rights Enforcement and the Racial Wage Gap

Jamein P. Cunningham and Jose Joaquin Lopez

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2021, vol. 111, 196-200

Abstract: We present new evidence on three measures of civil rights enforcement—litigation, judge dismissal, and plaintiff win rates—across US district courts from 1979 to 2016. Across courts, higher shares of Republican judges are associated with higher dismissal rates regardless of court composition in terms of gender and race. Further, we find that states with higher litigation rates also exhibit higher racial wage gaps, whereas states with higher judge dismissal (plaintiff win) rates experience higher (lower) racial wage gaps. Our results highlight the importance of legal institutions on the persistence of racial inequality.

JEL-codes: D63 J15 J31 J71 K31 K38 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20211111

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