Wage Differentials and the Mating Taboo 1970-1980

Linda Y. Wong
Additional contact information
Linda Y. Wong: SUNY-Binghamton

Journal of Economic Insight, 2001, vol. 27, issue 1, 21-40

Abstract: This paper studies the role of the mating taboo (distaste for intermarriage) in explaining the narrowing mean wage gaps between intermarried and intramarried black men. A search framework is extended to incorporate agents' races. To offset the mating taboo, agents who intermarry raise selection criterion; such selection behavior implies that the conditional expected intermarriage output can exceed the conditional mean intramarriage output. Samples of newlyweds from the 1970-1980 Census are used to examine the wage gap response to the mating taboo. After controlling for self-selection, the predicted positive mean wage gap for college educated black men diminishes from 1970 to 1980, while it rises for high-school dropouts. The mating taboo accounts for most of the mean wage gap for all education levels between 1970 and 1980. In particular, the magnitude of the mating taboo declines from 1970-1980 for college graduates but increases for high-school dropouts.

JEL-codes: D10 J12 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mve:journl:v:27:y:2001:i:1:p:21-40

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Insight is currently edited by Christopher Douglas and Joshua Lewer

More articles in Journal of Economic Insight from Missouri Valley Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Cullen Goenner ().