Measurement Error in Human Capital and the Black-White Wage Gap

Christopher Bollinger

The Review of Economics and Statistics, 2003, vol. 85, issue 3, 578-585

Abstract: Proxy variables are frequently used in economics to control for unavailable variables in a linear regression setting. For example, AFQT scores have been used to control for human capital accumulation in measuring black-white wage differentials. This practice may bias the coefficient estimates for the correctly measured variables as well. This paper models proxy variables as a measurement error process and derives bounds for the coefficients on the correctly measured variables under a variety of assumptions. The results show that the coefficient on race in a linear regression is an overstatement of the actual black-white wage gap. Sensitivity analysis suggests that if human capital could be correctly measured it would be unlikely that the coefficient on black would be negative. © 2003 President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Date: 2003
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