Divergent Paths: A New Perspective on Earnings Differences Between Black and White Men Since 1940
中文摘要
我们提供了关于全体男性（包括就业者与非就业者）中黑人与白人收入差异演变的新证据。我们考察两项指标：（i）收入水平差距，即给定分位数上的种族收入差异；（ii）收入排名差距，即一名黑人男性在黑人收入分布中所处的百分位与按其收入在白人收入分布中对应的位置之间的差异。从1940年到20世纪70年代中期，黑人与白人之间的中位数收入水平差距有所缩小，但此后又扩大至1950年的水平。与此同时，自1940年以来，处于黑人男性收入分布中位数的男性在收入分布中的相对位置基本保持不变，因此，中位数相对收入先改善后恶化，主要源于整体收入分布的拉伸与收窄。自1940年以来，处于较高百分位的黑人男性的相对收入大幅提高，这主要归因于受过大学教育的黑人男性在收入分布中的相对位次大幅提升。处于收入分布中位数及以下的黑人，其受教育程度相对于白人大幅提高，但由此带来的收益已被劳动力市场中技能回报的上升抵消有余；技能回报的上升使收入分布底部仍然存在的种族间受教育程度差异带来的收入惩罚越来越大。
Abstract
We present new evidence on the evolution of black–white earnings differences among all men, including both workers and nonworkers. We study two measures: (i) the level earnings gap—the racial earnings difference at a given quantile; and (ii) the earnings rank gap—the difference between a black man's percentile in the black earnings distribution and the position he would hold in the white earnings distribution. After narrowing from 1940 to the mid-1970s, the median black–white level earnings gap has since grown as large as it was in 1950. At the same time, the median black man's relative position in the earnings distribution has remained essentially constant since 1940, so that the improvement then worsening of median relative earnings have come mainly from the stretching and narrowing of the overall earnings distribution. Black men at higher percentiles have experienced significant advances in relative earnings since 1940, due mainly to strong positional gains among those with college educations. Large relative schooling gains by blacks at the median and below have been more than counteracted by rising return to skill in the labor market, which has increasingly penalized remaining racial differences in schooling at the bottom of the distribution.