One explanation for the widening of racial earnings gaps among family heads during the 1980s is that black families were increasingly headed by females during that period. This explanation is tested using data on black and white family heads in 1976 and 1985 from the Institute for Research on...

The sustained well-being of a people is contingent on their ability to maintain (1) a sense of personal worth, dignity, and unity among their members, (2) familial, tribal, clan, and community relations, (3) economic well-being, and (4) the capacity to exercise political self-determination....

This article tests the hypothesis that judicial arbitrariness dominated alimony or child support appeals in the pre-no-fault era by analyzing data on all alimony and child support appeals in the District of Columbia from 1950 through 1980. Censored regression analysis is used to isolate the...

In her study of occupational segregation in the United States using the 1960 Census, Barbara R. Bergmann found black males with low levels of education more concentrated in low-skill service and laborer occupations than white males and virtually excluded from higher status occupations. Utilizing...

Female headship among black families long has been more pronounced in the United States in comparison with other ethnic groups. E. Franklin Frazier's classic study of the black family in the 1930's placed a distinct emphasis on the disproportionately high number of "urban Negro families with...

The problem of housing market discrimination and racial disparities in mortgage lending has taken on a new level of urgency ("Blacks, Hispanics Remain Most Likely to Be Denied Home Loans," 1992; Brenner, 1992; Zuckoff, 1992). Researchers and scholars, as well as federal officials, have begun to...

This article describes the results of a study into possible racial discrimination on the part of government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) — specifically Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — that buy home mortgage loans on the secondary market. The article begins by laying out the problem: Racial...

Federal guidelines require that public entities receiving federal transit authority (FTA) funds take affirmative steps to allocate funds to disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs). Business firms owned and operated by women and/or racial minority group members are presumptively classified as...

Data from the United States Census confirm a substantial increase in the racial earnings gap between 1980 and 1990. This paper examines data on whites and non-white wage and salary incomes in Houston TX for 1980 and 1990. Data on time traveled to work is used to simulate what would be the impact...