Revisiting Bergmann’s Occupational Crowding Model

Michelle Holder

Review of Radical Political Economics, 2018, vol. 50, issue 4, 683-690

Abstract: In 1971, economist Barbara Bergmann developed the “occupational crowding model,†which posited that black men are “crowded into†low-wage occupations and “crowded out†of high-wage occupations due to employer discrimination. In quantitative analyses I have conducted for the years 2010 through 2011, the results have yielded a different picture from what Bergmann’s model predicts: although African American men are underrepresented in high-wage occupations, consistent with her model, this group does not appear to be overrepresented in low-wage occupational categories when the level of analysis is between major low-wage occupational categories instead of within categories. I attribute this to demographic changes in the US labor force, and conclude by suggesting that the model now requires further specification. JEL Codes: J15, J62, J71

Keywords: occupational segregation; occupational crowding; African American employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:50:y:2018:i:4:p:683-690

DOI: 10.1177/0486613418788406

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