Advances in the relative labor market position of black men stagnated in the 1980s, after nearly four decades of steady improvement. The structural change of the early 1980s was particularly costly for black men. Past research shows that black men faced a substantially higher risk of job...

Advances in the relative labor market position of black men stagnated in the 1980s, after nearly four decades of steady improvement. The structural change of the early 1980s was particularly costly for black men. Past research shows that black men faced a substantially higher risk of job...

Past studies have tested the claim that blacks are the last hired during periods of economic growth and the first fired in recessions by examining the movement of relative unemployment rates over the business cycle. Any conclusion drawn from this type of analysis must be viewed as tentative...

Census data show that the ratio of black to white unemployment rates, currently in excess of 2:1, was small or non-existent before 1940, widened dramatically during the 1940s and 1950s, and widened again in the 1980s. The authors decompose changes in the unemployment gap over the years 1880-1990...

The ratio of black to white unemployment rates is currently in excess of 2 to 1. We show that the racial unemployment gap was small or nonexistent before 1940, widened dramatically during the 1940s and 50s, and widened again in the 1980s. Using available U.S. Census data for the years 1880 to...

Using matched data from the 1996 to 2004 Current Population Survey (CPS), we examine racial patterns in annual transitions into and out of health insurance coverage. We first decompose racial differences in static health insurance coverage rates into group differences in transition rates into...