Black-white Differentials Research Articles

Income, wealth, and Black-White disparities in cognition

We investigated the contributions of income and wealth (beyond education) to Black–White disparities in cognition and evaluated whether the role of socioeconomic status (SES) varies by age. Based on data from a national survey of Americans (aged 23–94), we used regression models to quantify the overall racial disparities in episodic memory, executive function, and overall cognition, adjusted for sex and age. Potential mediators (i.e., measures of childhood environment, educational attainment, marital status, occupation, income, and wealth) were added in subsequent models. The age- and sex-adjusted Black–White differential in overall cognitive function was around one standard deviation (SD) between ages 25 and 50, but declined to 0.6 SD by age 80. Executive function followed a similar pattern, but the racial disparity in episodic memory declined more rapidly between ages 35 (0.7 SD) and 80 (0.2 SD). Childhood environment and the respondent's educational attainment accounted for 20–25% of the racial disparities in overall cognition. The incremental contribution of household income was small (1–5%). Although wealth had only a small effect at younger ages, the contribution grew with age. Wealth was much more important than income in explaining Black–White disparities in cognition at older ages. Childhood environment, marital status, and SES (including wealth) accounted for one-third of the racial disparity in overall cognition at ages 35–65, but an even greater share at age 80. Our study is the first to demonstrate that, with increasing age, wealth explains more of the Black–White disparity in cognition. A widening racial gap in wealth and the disproportionate financial impact of the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic on minorities do not bode well for Black-White differentials in cognition. Working-age Americans suffered the brunt of the economic impact of those events; the impact on cognition may increase as those cohorts grow older.

Implication of Vaginal and Cesarean Section Delivery Method in Black–White Differentials in Infant Mortality in the United States: Linked Birth/Infant Death Records, 2007–2016

Racial/ethnic disparities in infant mortality (IM) continue to persist in the United States, with Black/African Americans (AA) being disproportionally affected with a three-fold increase in mortality compared to Whites. Epidemiological data have identified maternal characteristics in IM risk such as preeclampsia, eclampsia, maternal education, smoking, maternal weight, maternal socioeconomic status (SES), and family structure. Understanding the social gradient in health including implicit bias, as inherent in the method of labor and delivery and the racial heterogeneity, may facilitate intervention mapping in narrowing the Black–White IM risk differences. We aimed to assess the temporal/racial trends and the methods of delivery, mainly vaginal vs. cesarean section (C-section) as an exposure function of IM. The United States linked birth/infant death records (2007–2016) were used with a cross-sectional ecological design. The analysis involved chi squared statistic, incidence rate estimation by binomial regression model, and period percent change. Of the 40,445,070 births between 2007 and 2016, cumulative mortality incidence was 249,135 (1.16 per 1000). The IM rate was highest among Black/AA (11.41 per 1000), intermediate among Whites (5.19 per 1000), and lowest among Asian /Pacific Islanders (4.24 per 1000). The cumulative incidence rate difference, comparing vaginal to cesarean procedure was 1.73 per 1000 infants, implying excess IM with C-section. Compared to C-section, there was a 31% decreased risk of IM among mothers with vaginal delivery, rate ratio (RR) = 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.64–0.74. Racial disparities were observed in the method of delivery associated with IM. Black/AA mothers with vaginal delivery had a 6% decreased risk of IM compared to C-section, RR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.92–0.95, while Whites with vaginal delivery had a 38% decrease risk of IM relative to C-section, RR= 0.68, 95% CI: 0.67–0.69, p < 0.001. Infant mortality varied by race, with Black/AA disproportionally affected, which is explained in part by labor and delivery procedures, suggestive of reliable and equitable intrapartum assessment of Black/AA mothers during labor, as well as implicit bias marginalization in the healthcare system.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Homeownership

There are persistent differences in homeownership rates across racial and ethnic groups. Homeownership rates for whites are over 20 percentage points higher than for blacks or Hispanics. This paper uses a model of the housing tenure decision to gain a better understanding of these racial and ethnic differentials in homeownership and employs a decomposition technique that has been applied to labor market discrimination to report the results of the empirical testing of two hypotheses; (1) race (ethnicity) influences the probability of ownership through differences in household endowments (income, education, age, gender, and family type) and market endowments (price and location); and (2) race (ethnicity) directly influences the probability of ownership through racial or ethnic discrimination and other factors that may be correlated with race or ethnicity. We find endowment effects important in explaining the persistent racial and ethnic disparities in homeownership. In brief, logit analysis of 1989 American Housing Survey (AHS) national sample data reveals that 81 percent (78 percent) of the differences between the predicted probability of ownership between black and white households (Hispanic/non-Hispanic) are due to differences in group endowments. Direct effects explain 19 percent of the black-white differentials and 22 percent of the Hispanic/non-Hispanic differentials. Because the direct effects are modeled as residual differences, it must be realized that the residual components could also be capturing the influence of important omitted or harder to measure variables internal to the market process and correlated with race or ethnicity. These include wealth, household location, employment history, credit history, and cultural predisposition toward homeownership.

Social networks and Black–White differentials in public employment agency usage among mature job seekers

We conceptually and empirically analyze how local labor market weakness impacts the usage of public employment agencies (PEAs) between Blacks and Whites in the USA. Employing restricted-use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, our empirical results indicate that Blacks have higher PEA-usage rates than Whites, likely caused by their higher unemployment rates. However, Whites in regions with relatively weak professional networks tended to tap into PEAs more than otherwise similar Blacks, reducing the Black–White differential in PEA usage. These findings fit with the conceptual prediction that Whites endure a disproportionate negative impact when tighter labor markets (and thus fewer referrals) exist. They also raise the question about whether current anti-labor-market discrimination policies account for potential job-referral differentials between Black and Whites. To the extent that employers favor employee recommendations from members of a particular racial/ethnic group, then perhaps policy targeting discrimination in the workplace should consider how job openings are initially advertised and subsequently filled.

Race and Income Distribution: Evidence from the USA, Brazil and South Africa

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to provide some empirical evidence about black–white differentials in the distribution of income and wellbeing in three different countries: Brazil, the USA and South Africa. In all cases, people of African descent are in a variety of ways socially disadvantaged compared with the relatively more affluent whites. We investigate the extent of these gaps in comparative perspective, and analyze to what degree they are associated with differences in the observed characteristics of races, such as where they live, the types of household they have, or their performance in the labor market. We undertake this analysis with the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition at the means and with a propensity score approach at the entire distribution. Our results show how the factors underlying the racial divide vary across countries and income quantiles.

Social Networks and Labor Market Inequality between Ethnicities and Races

This paper analyzes the relationship between unexplained racial/ethnic wage differentials on the one hand and social network segregation, as measured by inbreeding homophily, on the other hand. Our analysis is based on both U.S. and Estonian surveys, supplemented with Estonian telephone communication data. In case of Estonia we consider the regional variation in economic performance of the Russian minority, and in the U.S. case we consider the regional variation in black-white differentials. Our analysis finds a strong relationship between the size of the differential and network segregation: regions with more segregated social networks exhibit larger unexplained wage gaps.

Racial Labor Market Gaps: The Role of Abilities and Schooling Choices

This paper studies the relationship between abilities, schooling choices, and black-white differentials in labor market outcomes. The analysis is based on a model of endogenous schooling choices. Agents’ schooling decisions are based on expected future earnings, family background, and unobserved abilities. Earnings are also determined by unobserved abilities. The analysis distinguishes unobserved abilities from observed test scores. The model is implemented using data from the NLSY79. The results indicate that, even after controlling for abilities, there exist significant racial labor market gaps. They also suggest that the standard practice of equating observed test scores may overcompensate for differentials in ability.

Longitudinal, population-based study of racial/ethnic differences in colorectal cancer survival: impact of neighborhood socioeconomic status, treatment and comorbidity

BackgroundColorectal cancer, if detected early, has greater than 90% 5-year survival. However, survival has been shown to vary across racial/ethnic groups in the United States, despite the availability of early detection methods.MethodsThis study evaluated the joint effects of sociodemographic factors, tumor characteristics, census-based socioeconomic status (SES), treatment, and comorbidities on survival after colorectal cancer among and within racial/ethnic groups, using the SEER-Medicare database for patients diagnosed in 1992–1996, and followed through 1999.ResultsUnadjusted colorectal cancer-specific mortality rates were higher among Blacks and Hispanic males than whites (relative rates (95% confidence intervals) = 1.34 (1.26–1.42) and 1.16 (1.04–1.29), respectively), and lower among Japanese (0.78 (0.70–0.88)). These patterns were evident for all-cause mortality, although the magnitude of the disparity was larger for colorectal cancer mortality. Adjustment for stage accounted for the higher rate among Hispanic males and most of the lower rate among Japanese. Among Blacks, stage and SES accounted for about half of the higher rate relative to Whites, and within stage III colon and stages II/III rectal cancer, SES completely accounted for the small differentials in survival between Blacks and Whites. Comorbidity did not appear to explain the Black-White differentials in colorectal-specific nor all-cause mortality, beyond stage, and treatment (surgery, radiation, chemotherapy) explained a very small proportion of the Black-White difference. The fully-adjusted relative mortality rates comparing Blacks to Whites was 1.14 (1.09–1.20) for all-cause mortality and 1.21 (1.14–1.29) for colorectal cancer specific mortality. The sociodemographic, tumor, and treatment characteristics also had different impacts on mortality within racial/ethnic groups.ConclusionIn this comprehensive analysis, race/ethnic-specific models revealed differential effects of covariates on survival after colorectal cancer within each group, suggesting that different strategies may be necessary to improve survival in each group. Among Blacks, half of the differential in survival after colorectal cancer was primarily attributable to stage and SES, but differences in survival between Blacks and Whites remain unexplained with the data available in this comprehensive, population-based, analysis.

Trends in Black–White Differentials in Dietary Intakes of U.S. Adults, 1971–2002

Disparities in the health status of blacks and whites have persisted despite considerable gains in improved health of the U.S. population. Tracking changes in black-white differentials in dietary attributes over time may help in understanding the contribution of diet to these disparities. Data were used from four National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys conducted between 1971 and 2002 for trends in self-reported intakes of energy, macronutrients, micronutrients, fruits and vegetables, and the energy density of foods among U.S. non-Hispanic black (n=7099) and white (n=23,314) men and women aged 25 to 74 years. Logistic and linear regression methods were used to adjust for multiple covariates and survey design. Energy intake, amount of food, and carbohydrate energy increased, whereas percentage of energy from protein, fat, and saturated fat decreased over time in all race and gender groups (p<0.001). In whites and in black women, energy density increased (p<0.001) in parallel to increases in obesity prevalence. In all surveys, black men and women reported lower intakes of vegetables, potassium, and calcium (p<0.001) than their white counterparts. In men, the race differential in calcium intake increased across surveys (p=0.004). Dietary intake trends in blacks and whites from 1971 to 2002 were similar, which suggests that previously identified dietary risk factors that differentially affect black Americans have not improved in a relative sense.

Privatization, City Residency, and Black-White Earnings Differentials: Evidence from the Public Transit Sector

Becker's theory on the economics of discrimination suggests that enhanced competition creates a business environment that discourages employers from paying racial earnings differences. This study tests this hypothesis by examining black-white earnings differentials for public transit bus drivers for pre- and post-privatization periods. The findings reveal an erosion of the racial earnings differential in the post-privatization period which is consistent with the Becker hypothesis. Public transit black union drivers earned more than their white counterparts prior to privatization. City residency accounts for 36 percent of this premium. However, the city-residency earnings advantage and the black-white union premium declinedappreciably in the post-privatization period.

Getting Beyond Marginality and Ethnicity: The Challenge for Race and Ethnic Studies in Leisure Research

Over the past 30 years leisure scholars have produced a substantial literature around the dynamics of race and ethnicity in leisure behavior. Two major social forces have impelled research questions involving race and ethnicity to the foreground of leisure studies. During the 1960s, the marginal social and economic conditions of racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. and abroad arrested attention of public policymakers and social scientists. In the U.S., the Civil Rights movement climaxed, leading to the dismantling of longstanding institutional barriers to political participation and public accommodations, including specific actions targeted at public parks and other recreation areas (Murphy, 1972). The heightened awareness of racial inequality during this period brought about sharper focus on black-white differentials in outdoor recreation participation and leisure activity preferences. Initial research questions dealing with race and ethnicity were contextualized by the socio-political agenda of this era. Thus, it is not surprising that differential rates of participation in public recreation and leisure programs exhibited by different ethnic groups, primarily between the minority and white majority, received the greatest scrutiny from researchers. More recent demographic changes in North America represent the second major factor drawing attention to racial and ethnic issues. Numerous books, articles, and governmental reports have called attention to the rate of growth and projected increase of ethnic minorities relative to nonHispanic whites (e.g., Murdock, 1995; O'Hare, 1992; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1994). Using detailed cohort-projection techniques, Murdock and associates (1990, 1991, 1996) and Dwyer (1994) have examined how growth of ethnic minority populations is likely to impact participation in a variety of outdoor recreation activities. Their analyses suggest that racial and ethnic minority population growth will be reflected in the composition of activity participants. Specifically, they project that growth in the number of participants in several leisure activities will be due primarily to increases among non-white populations. While only in the last several years have these trends been reported in the scholarly literature, practitioners have witnessed the shift in demographic trends up-close and have been challenged to re-orient programs and services to meet the needs of a more racially and ethnically diverse clientele. Largely in response to such factors, researchers have sought to understand ethnic patterns in leisure participation, attempting to make sense of the race and ethnicity dynamic in leisure settings. It is fitting that the Journal of Leisure Research would devote a special issue to race and ethnicity some 30 years removed from the Civil Rights era and in the midst of the current ethnic transformation of North America. Coincidentally, this issue appears exactly 20 years after Randel Washburne's (1978) seminal article on black underparticipation in wildland recreation in Leisure Sciences. Washburne's piece was not the first empirical study of race and ethnic effects on leisure participation. Several research reports, symposium papers, books, and book chapters predate his publication (e.g., Jones, 1927; Mueller & Gurin, 1962; Meeker, Woods, & Lucas, 1972; Cheek, Field, & Burch, 1976). His contribution was the articulation of a conceptual basis-marginality and ethnicity-for interpreting race and ethnic effects in leisure participation. This special issue provides an opportunity to evaluate the extent of progress in understanding race and ethnic effects in leisure. Moreover, the marginality-ethnicity framework stands as a useful benchmark to gauge where the current literature is positioned both theoretically and empirically with respect to race and ethnic concerns. As part of the special issue, several observations about the state of the race and ethnic studies literature within the leisure field will be discussed. …

What Spatial Mismatch? The Proximity of Blacks to Employment in Boston and Houston

We investigate the spatial mismatch hypothesis by analyzing detailed data on the spatial distributions of jobs and populations in Boston and Houston. Job potential measures calculated using data from the Urban Transportation Planning Package indicate that, on average, blacks are physically near more jobs than whites are. This finding holds despite analysis being restricted to consider only entry-level blue-collar jobs and allowances being made for group differences in search and commuting capabilities. This raises questions about the hypothesis that black-white employment differentials can be attributed to an inadequate supply of employment possibilities for African American workers resulting from shifts in the spatial distribution of jobs from the inner city to the suburbs. We investigate the spatial mismatch hypothesis by analyzing detailed data on the spatial distributions of jobs and populations in Boston and Houston. First advanced by Kain (1968), the spatial mismatch hypothesis argues that black access to employment has been adversely affected by the tendency for jobs in urban areas to shift toward locations distant from black residential centers. The idea is that because racial residential segregation has continued to disproportionately concentrate blacks in inner-city ghettos and because blacks have inferior access to automobiles, they'are less capable than whites of physically reaching suburban jobs and are thus more subject to unemployment. In the present article, we investigate spatial mismatch giving special attention to issues of conceptualization and measurement of mismatch. We draw on detailed data on the spatial location of employment taken from Urban

Racial and ethnic differences in housing demand: An econometric investigation

This article empirically investigates the sources of housing demand differences between racial (black and white) and ethnic (Hispanic and non-Hispanic) groups. We estimate the tenure-adjusted housing demand equations from the 1989 American Housing Survey (AHS) national sample data and measure the effects of different sources for demand disparities in housing demand, but much less so in explaining racial differences in housing demand. Specifically, 98% (96%) of the housing demand differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic owners (renters) is due to differences in group endowments. For the racial groups, 29% (51%) of the housing demand differences between black and white owners (renters) is attributable to differences in group endowments. The residual differences explain 71% and 49% of the black-white differentials for owners and renters, respectively. The residual components in our model capture the effect of institutional and structural factors intrinsic to the housing market (such as racial discrimination or residential segregation) and/or the influence of important omitted or harder-tomeasure variables correlated with race or ethnicity (such as wealth, employment history, credit history, and cultural differences in housing consumption).

Segregation, Poverty, and Empowerment: Health Consequences for African Americans

Cities in the United States have undergone major social transitions during the past two decades. Three notable factors in these shifts have been the development of a black political elite sustained rates of black poverty, and intensified racial segregation. Indications of the effect of these social forces on black-white differentials in health status have begun to surface in the research literature. This article reports analyses of data from all U.S. cities with a population of 50,000, at least 10 percent of which is black. These results indicate substantial geographic variation in black-white infant mortality rates. Racial residential segregation, black political empowerment, and black and white poverty are the characteristics that distinguish cities that have a high degree of disparity in black-white infant mortality from cities that do not.

The Impact of Children on Married Women's Labor Supply: Black-White Differentials Revisited

Previous studies have documented that the depressing effect of children on labor supply is greater for white wives than for their black counterparts. The present paper examines the hypothesis that this difference by race is less pronounced in the highly educated segments of the population. Multinomial logit estimates of a labor supply model using data from the 1982 National Survey of Family Growth are consistent with the hypothesis.

Imperfect Signalling, Affirmative Action, and Black-White Wage Differentials

The existence of black-white wage differentials has received considerable attention in the economics literature. Imperfect information provides the underpinning of several models which attempt to explain such differentials [1; 2; 3; 4; 11]. Arrow's work, for example, shows that, when screening is costly and expectations of productivity differ across groups, wages may differ between individuals with identical productivity [2; 3]. Borjas and Goldberg point out that biased screens may lead to wage differentials even when the two groups have identical distributions of productivity [4]. It is important to note that these differentials arise in the absence of discriminatory tastes among market participants. Other researchers have investigated the impact of affirmative action programs on minority-majority wage differentials. Welch indicates the kinds of wage differences which can arise under certainty about productivity levels [12]. Lazear demonstrates that the apparent narrowing of blackwhite differentials under affirmative action may well be an illusion due to the failure to measure non-pecuniary income in the form of on-the-job training [7]. While these models provide an appealing explanation of the main outlines of minoritymajority wage differentials, they do not explain another stylized fact which has been observed recently. A study of academicians revealed that black males with a number of publications earned more than their white counterparts, whereas black male academics with no publications earned less than comparable whites [5]. Olneck showed that, in terms of occupational status, the return to college graduation was higher for non-whites than for whites, but the return to secondary education was lower [6, 159-90]. Similarly, while the income of college-educated black males rose relative to that of whites of similar qualifications between 1967 and 1978, the income of less educated black males fell relative to that of their white counterparts over the same period.' Sowell has argued that this skewing of the relative distributions is a result of affirmative action programs [9; 10]. Although the quotas seem to increase the demand for minority workers, their legislative framework increases the

Impacts of Discrimination on Black-White Earnings Differentials, 1960–70

Impacts of Discrimination on Black-White Earnings Differentials, 1960–70

Black-White Differentials in Crime Rates

In this paper a choice-theoretic model of participation in crime is adopted to capture some of the conventional explanations for why Blacks have higher crime rates than whites. Naively, the controversial proposition that higher black crimes rates are illusory is eschewed. Instead, it is assumed for expository purposes that Blacks really are more criminal than whites.

Race, Education, and Fertility: A Comparison of Black-White Reproductive Behavior

The objectives of the 1971 Metropolitan Family Planning Survey which studied 715 ever married women age 15 to 44 were two-fold. 1) To study the relationship between age race and selected fertility variables in a metropolitan area and 2) to study if racial differentials were modified by education. 3 measures of family size preferences and fertility were used: 1) number of children considered ideal; 2) total number of children expected; and 3) number of children ever born. Results indicated that for ideal family size variable nonwhite women had a higher fertility ideal than white women and that family size varied directly with age. When the children ever born variable was analyzed results showed that nonwhite women had 20% higher fertility with the largest difference in the 15 to 24 age group. The authors contend that early childbearing limits alternatives to mother roles leading to higher fertility. Expected number of children also varied with age among white and nonwhite women. An inverse relationship was found between education and ideal family size in nonwhite women and irregardles of nonwhite attitudes toward larger number of children for ideal family size the reproductive behavior does not bear this out. There was a higher fertility rate for whites who have completed high school level or more education. The authors believe the minority group status theory explains the black white differentials at the higher educational level.

Black-White Differentials in the Institutionalization of the Elderly: A Temporal Analysis

Black-White Differentials in the Institutionalization of the Elderly: A Temporal Analysis