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Racial Wage Differences among Young Male Job Changers: The Relative Contribution of Migration, Occupation Change, Site Characteristics, and Human Capital
Author(s) -
WOLAVER AMY M.,
WHITE NANCY E.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
growth and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.657
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1468-2257
pISSN - 0017-4815
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2257.2006.00303.x
Subject(s) - wage , human capital , white (mutation) , demographic economics , compensation (psychology) , economics , labour economics , race (biology) , sociology , psychology , economic growth , biology , gender studies , social psychology , biochemistry , gene
We demonstrated racial differences in the relationship between migration, location, and predicted wages for young male workers who have changed employers. An Oaxaca decomposition allowed a measuring of the contributions of migration, occupation change, site features, and human capital to the racial wage gap. Migration decreases black–white wage differences, and wage compensation for site attributes favors white householders. Constraints on occupation choice and migration dampen the ability of blacks to improve wages. Because most job changes occur in the first ten years of a career, these results on young workers give important general insights into the origins and persistence of racial wage gaps.