The Importance of Segregation, Discrimination, Peer Dynamics, and Identity in Explaining Trends in the Racial Achievement Gap

Roland Fryer ()

No 16257, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: After decades of narrowing, the achievement gap between black and white school children widened in the 1990s - a period when the labor market rewards for education were increasing. This presents an important puzzle for economists. In this chapter, I investigate the extent to which economic models of segregation, information-based discrimination, peer dynamics, and identity can explain this puzzle. Under a reasonable set of assumptions, models of peer dynamics and identity are consistent with the time-series data. Segregation and models of discrimination both contradict the trends in important ways.

JEL-codes: J01 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-ure
Note: LS
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published as Handbook of Social Economics Volume 1, 2011, Pages 1165–1191 Cover image Chapter 21 – The Importance of Segregation, Discrimination, Peer Dynamics, and Identity in Explaining Trends in the Racial Achievement Gap* Roland G. Fryer Jr.

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