We use panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) to estimate the effects of cognitive skills (measured by the Armed Forces Qualification Test) and attitudinal/behavioral traits (a latent factor based on self-reported self-esteem, locus of control, educational aspirations and educational expectations) on career wage…

Few studies have considered how earnings inequality estimates may be affected by measurement error in self-reported earnings in surveys. Utilizing restricted-use data that links workers in the Survey of Income and Program Participation with their W-2 earnings records, we examine the effect of measurement error on estimates of racial earnings…

This article employs a unique method of inferring the legal status of Mexican immigrants in the Survey of Income and Program Participation to offer new evidence of the role of legal authorization in the United States on workers' wages. We estimate wage trajectories for four groups: documented Mexican immigrants, undocumented Mexican immigrants,…

There are sizeable earnings differentials by gender and race in the U.S. labor market, with women earning less than men and most racial/ethnic minority groups earning less than whites. It has been proposed in the previous literature that the effects of gender and race on earnings are additive, so that minority women suffer the full disadvantage of…

Using a hazards framework and panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979-2004), we analyze the fertility patterns of a recent cohort of white and black women in the United States. We examine how completed fertility varies by women's education, differentiating between intended and unintended births. We find that the education…

During the 1980s and 1990s, industrial restructuring led to a marked increase in wage inequality. Women, however, were not as negatively affected by declining manufacturing employment because their pay was relatively low within the industry, and their already high representation in the service sector provided access to newly created opportunities.…

Analysis of North Carolina survey data indicates that females' average hourly wages were 71% of males', and blacks' wages were 78% of whites'. Human capital factors (educational attainment and occupational experience) explained 31% and 3% of the racial and gender gaps, respectively. Job gender composition explained 56% of the gender gap; job…

This paper studies the effects of wages and employment on men's prison admission rates in the United States from 1983 to 2001. Research on the effects of the labor market on incarceration usually examines national-or state-level data, but our analysis studies prison admission among black and white men in specific age-education groups. We find a…

Black workers were found more likely than white workers to prefer extrinsic rewards of high income and job security and less likely to prefer an intrinsic reward of feelings of job accomplishment. These Findings are discussed as they bear on the race class issue and Maslow's theory of job values. (Author/GC)

Analyses of National Longitudinal Survey data indicate that cognitive skill level affects access to high-skill occupations and earnings. Lower cognitive skill levels for African Americans and U.S.-born Mexican Americans explain a substantial proportion of income differences between these groups and European Americans but not the gender gap in pay…