The Relative Occupational Success of Blacks and Whites

Robert E. Hall and

Robert E. Hall Robert and Carole McNeil Joint Hoover Senior Fellow and Professor of Economics - Stanford University

Richard A. Kasten

RAK

Richard A. Kasten Massachusetts Institute of Technology

WITHIN THE LABOR MARKET, blacks suffer relative to whites in two ways:
first, blacks are less likely to have high-paying occupations than whites,
and, second, within each occupation, they are paid less. In this paper, we
present and discuss some results of a study of an extensive body of data
that has recently become available on the employment histories of young
men, both black and white. We hope to contribute some new information
from an independent source to the discussion and controversy that has
emerged from Richard Freeman’s paper in early 1973.1