The Impact of Childhood Family Background, School Resources, and Curriculum on Black and White Women's Educational Attainments, Labor Market Experience, Occupational Mobility

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This research will examine differences between black and white women in economic status. The poject,while while focused methodologically within economics in general and multivariate statistical techniques, will draw from a number of other disciplines, including sociology, psychology, and education. Several longitudinal data bases will be used to develop anindividual-level approach to questions of educational attainment, occupational status, and earnings. The focus on family background and school inputs will highlight issues of the intergenerational transmission of wealth and poverty. The investigation will permit insights into the following questions: How do secondary school inputs affect educational attainment such as high school graduation, the extent and quality of post-secondary schooling, major selected, occupation, and earnings? How do family background characteristics, such as parental education and income, family size, birth order, and presence of one or two parents affect these outcomes? How do school resources and family background affect measured secondary school academic achievement or cognitive skills? How do college characteristics affect labor market success? How important are college resources per student and the quality of college peers for learning of the type that is rewarded in the labor market? How can the effects of college per se be separated from the effects of pre-college education and ability? What is the role of educational attainment in occupational mobility? How much of occupational convergence between black women and white women is explained by rising educational attainment amongst blacks? What is the role of anti-discrimination legislation and affirmative action? How can these questions about human capital accumulation be related to the special concerns of low-income women, particularly black women? What is the impact on black females of the deteriorating economic status of black men? Black women face both disadvantage and discrimination and their economic status is more precarious than the economic status of white women. This project will provide a basis for a deeper understanding of the factors that explain advances, stagnation and decline in relative economic status for black women. It will also contribute to our understanding of changes in the economic status of white women.