On the Blurring of the Color Line: Wages and Employment for Black Males of Different Skin Tones

Daniel Kreisman and Marcos A. Rangel ()
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Marcos A. Rangel: Duke University, Sanford School of Public Policy

The Review of Economics and Statistics, 2015, vol. 97, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: We evaluate the role skin color plays in earnings and employment for black males in the NLSY97. By applying a novel, scaled measure of skin tone to a nationally representative sample and by estimating the evolution of labor market differentials over time, we bridge a burgeoning literature on skin color with more established literatures on wage differentials and labor market discrimination. We find that while intraracial wage gaps widen with experience, gaps between the lightest-skinned black workers and whites remain constant, suggesting that a blurring of the color line elicits subtle yet meaningful variation in earnings differentials over time. © 2015 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Keywords: intraracial; intraracial wage gap; wage gap; wage differentials; labor market; labor market discrimination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G10 J31 J70 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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