Discrimination and the Effects of Drug Testing on Black Employment

Abigail Wozniak

No 20095, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Nearly half of U.S. employers test job applicants and workers for drugs. A common assumption is that the rise of drug testing must have had negative consequences for black employment. However, the rise of employer drug testing may have benefited African-Americans by enabling non-using blacks to prove their status to employers. I use variation in the timing and nature of drug testing regulation to identify the impacts of testing on black hiring. Black employment in the testing sector is suppressed in the absence of testing, a finding which is consistent with ex ante discrimination on the basis of drug use perceptions. Adoption of pro-testing legislation increases black employment in the testing sector by 7-30% and relative wages by 1.4-13.0%, with the largest shifts among low skilled black men. Results further suggest that employers substitute white women for blacks in the absence of testing.

JEL-codes: J24 J7 J8 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-lma
Note: LS PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Abigail Wozniak, 2015. "Discrimination and the Effects of Drug Testing on Black Employment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(3), pages 548-566, July.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Discrimination and the Effects of Drug Testing on Black Employment (2015)
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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