Discrimination and the Effects of Drug Testing on Black Employment

Abigail Wozniak

The Review of Economics and Statistics, 2015, vol. 97, issue 3, 548-566

Abstract: A common assumption is that the rise of drug testing among U.S. employers must have had negative consequences for black employment. I use variation in the timing and nature of drug testing regulation to identify the impacts of testing on black hiring. I find that adoption of protesting legislation increases black employment in the testing sector by 7 percent to 30 percent and relative wages by 1.4 percent to 13.0 percent, with the largest shifts among low-skilled black men. The results are consistent with ex ante discrimination and suggest that drug testing may benefit African Americans by enabling nonusing blacks to prove their status to employers.

Keywords: discrimination; drug testing; black employment; black hiring; african americans (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Discrimination and the Effects of Drug Testing on Black Employment (2014)
Working Paper: Discrimination and the Effects of Drug Testing on Black Employment (2012)
Working Paper: Discrimination and the Effects of Drug Testing on Black Employment (2012)
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