Why Racial Stereotyping Doesn’t Just Go Away: The Question of Honesty and Work Ethic

Elaine McCrate

Working Papers from Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Abstract: One of the most persistent stereotypes about blacks concerns honesty and work ethic. These characteristics are also central to employers' evaluation of prospective and current workers; employers say that these traits matter more than skills. However, honesty and work ethic are difficult to observe and assess, placing them squarely in the terrain of statistical discrimination theory. One common criticism of this theory is that employers should be able to collect enough information on prospective workers to render race irrelevant, and that high-quality workers have incentives to signal their productivity to employers regardless of race. As a result, inefficient stereotypes should erode over time. In contrast, I argue that there are many reasons for inefficient stereotypes about honesty and work ethic to persist, and I investigate the empirical evidence for these theories.

JEL-codes: J70 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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