10/16/2003 Econ
Why wage/earnings differences
i. Employers
1. prefer one group
2. Max utility instead of profit
ii. Customer
1. "comfort level"
2. perceived status
3. driven by societal bias
iii. Other employees
i. Two job applicants: One who went to Stanford, one who went to Cal State. Stanford is statistically more rigorous in application process, so prefer Stanford (asymmetric information)
ii. Race: blacks and Hispanics score lower on tests, so that knowledge might give a white applicant an edge
iii. For women, it's not the test score, it's the idea that they might take time out of the workforce (this is wrong, women are less likely to leave a job, though they may take leave a little more often)
Gaps between skills and wages between races
Gaps between who they had access to
Armed Forces Qualifying test Ð taken when 19. Group born between1962-1964, graduated in the 80s, looking at wages/earnings 10 years later to see what they were getting
Bigger gap between hourly wages and annual earnings Ð basic skills influenced annual earnings less than hourly wages Blacks earning less had more to do with discrimination, few conclusions wrt gender
At beginning of study included women and Hispanics but at the end were inconclusive, at end only talked about men and black/white Ð made broad generalizations at end of study but only found conclusive info on that one subgroup. Also would have like to have info on the intervening 10 years
Black college graduates are actually earning more than white college grads, but as the level of ed decreases, significant gap in favor of whites. Positied based on networking and how gain work experience, "foot in door" issues
SL: It tries to do a very simple way of looking at wage discrimination, but even in this simple model it's very hard to think about what averages to take and what to control for.
OC Ð at some point you have to stop controlling for factors, otherwise you end up saying that Bob earns more than Mike, which tells you absolutely nothing generalizable.
Test score gap on achievement test
Typical black person scores 75-85 less than whites
Argued that bridging test score gap could bridge income gap, as well as academic.
Spent most of paper trying to account for/discredit reasons the gap existed
Genetics (debunked, firm stance against)
Single parent (no)
Cultural poverty (seemed to indicate it was a minimal cause)
Segregation (desegregation made some difference, not enough)
Differences in schools (allocation of funds and resources similar except for teacher test scores in primarily black schools was lower. "Semiliterate teachers" perhaps best avenue to explore in terms of future research and policy recs.)
Test score gap in evidence before children enter school. Warrants research into Head Start programs and parenting techniques. they talk about Head Start Ð but this group is not sure that preschool training effects are sustained throughout adolescence.
Admitted that evidence was sketchy and that there's not a lot of info on why gap exists. Also talked about how there are some policy moves that might be _effective_ but are politically not feasible.
Grand statement about test score gap erasure eliminating all racial inequality, but huge statement for small study, didn't really address.
Ogbu Ð "Oppositional culture" created to emphasis on test scores and academia Ð culturally "uncool" "acting white" to focus on academics, or admin/teachers default track
SL: Thought it was interesting that there are still substantial gaps in achievement within schools.
Looked at amount of money allocated to schools but not at HOW it was spent
Try to form chain of right answers and at end of round vote out "weakest link".
Are certain people being voted against because of preconceptions about race, gender, education, age etc.
Dependent: how many votes
Independent: fixed effects, demographics, how people voted in previous rounds (revenge)
One of the key aims of the study was trying to distinguish between prejudice (taste-based) and statistical discrimination (info-based)
Strategy: at beginning vote off weakest, at end vote off strongest. So sort of ambiguous because voting strategy changes. In beginning you want to get rid of stupid people and people you don't like Ð at end want to get rid of people you don't like but keep the stupid people.
Amusing paper, a little silly, problematic issues of methodology Ð education level was assumed based on stated employment. Even though whole population 3,267 votes, individual samples (Hispanics in final round) could be very small (7 votes) found some evidence of discrimination against older people & some against Hispanics Ð they ask, how do you know if someone is Hispanic? Altogether, very little evidence of any discrimination against any group other than older people.
Also puts out caveat that since show is televised people may wish to hide socially unacceptable prejudices in such a public forum
Tendency for individuals to vote less frequently for members of their own group.
SL: It's interesting to measure things like this because there is a concrete measure of productivity, unlike most jobs in the workforce.