Nearly half of U.S. employers test job applicants and workers for drugs. I use variation in the timing and nature of drug testing regulation to study discrimination against blacks related to perceived drug use. Black employment in the testing sector is suppressed in the absence of testing,...

This paper discusses the role of public policy in the skills development system of the U.S. It further examines the implications of that policy for the skill development and career progression of black workers. The paper describes the current "system" for skills development in the United States...

A number of empirical studies have tested the spatial mismatch hypothesis by examining the commuting times of blacks and whites. This note points out that the link between spatial mismatch and commuting times may be weak when employment probabilities decline as the distance from job site to...

In a seminal paper, Gibbons and Katz (1991) develop and empirically test an asymmetric information model of the labor market. The model predicts that wage losses following displacement should be larger for layoffs than for plant closings, which was borne out by data from the Displaced Workers...

The effect of discrimination on black-white racial segregation is studied using a confidential supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Audit studies reveal that the rate of discrimination in rental housing is substantially higher than in owner-occupied housing. Thus, a variable...

Black immigrants from the British West Indies and their descendants have long held the interest of historians and sociologists because they provide a means of understanding the influence of differing cultural background on black economic progress. Numerous accounts from before World War II...

What role has affirmative action played in the growth of minority and female employment in U.S. firms? This paper analyzes this issue by comparing the employment of minorities and women at firms holding federal contracts and therefore mandated to implement affirmative action, and at...

The contributors to this book investigate the compensation and employment risks for U.S. and Canadian workers. They examine both wage and nonwage aspects of compensation, and whether workers in the U.S. or Canada face more job-related risks. They also seek to identify trends in risk bearing and...

This paper examines how a metropolitan area's job growth affects its income distribution. The research uses annual Current Population Survey data on the income distribution in different metropolitan areas from 1979 through 1988. Faster metropolitan job growth increases real family income in the...

We estimate the returns to seniority (the wage-tenure profile) for university faculty, and the degree to which these returns respond to entry-level salaries (or opportunity wages) a relationship unexplored in work to date. Using data on faculty at a Big Ten university (ours), we estimate...