Collaborative Research: Workforce Diversity, Coworker Trust, Skin Shade, and Competitiveness: Wage Determination of Black Americans Reconsidered

合作研究：劳动力多样性、同事信任、肤色和竞争力：重新考虑美国黑人的工资决定

• 批准号: 0234025
• 负责人: William Darity
• 金额: $ 13.12万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-09-01 至 2005-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0234025&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Workforce; Diversity; Coworker

This project extends the knowledge of economists regarding black-white wage differentials by examining two hypotheses for why the racial wage gap might be larger for some groups of black workers. First, we postulate that as an economically subaltern group acquires more competitive labor market attributes they will face a greater intensity of labor market discrimination so as to maintain the social hierarchy in favor of the dominant group. We refer to this hypothesis as the Functionality of Discrimination. We will perform a variety of tests in which we compare levels of unexplained wage differences, a standard measure of discrimination, across black workers that have alternative amounts of desirable labor market attributes. Second, we propose that blacks with lighter skin shade benefit more from coworker cooperation than darker skinned blacks who are otherwise comparable, which will lead to a smaller racial wage gap for lighter skinned blacks. We advance the notion that there is a link between skin shade and productivity since the work setting is a social environment where personal interaction influences job performance. In our view, coworkers have skills they may share with one another that enhance personal productivity and wages. However, cooperation between coworkers (including the sharing of skills) is likely to depend on commonalities and we envision phenotype similarity as a commonality that workers may form coalitions around. Thus, we expect white workers, who generally are in better jobs than black workers, to be more cooperative with lighter skinned blacks. If this is the case then lighter skinned blacks will be more productive than otherwise comparable darker skinned blacks from working with white coworkers, which will translate into greater wages for lighter skinned blacks. Data from the National Survey of Black Americans (NSBA) collected in 1979 and data from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL), which resembles the National Survey of Black Americans but were collected in 2001, are used in this study to estimate wage equations. The estimated equations will reveal the contribution of skin shade to wages and the estimates will reveal if unexplained wage differences between blacks and whites are greater for those blacks considered highly competitive in the work place. Since the surveys are two decades apart how the relationship between skin shade and wages has changed over time can be explored. The data sets used in the study are unique in that they provide data on a person's skin shade and information on whether an individual works in a group. For work team members there is information on the size and on the racial composition of their workgroup. These data sets also provide information on an individual's cognitive ability and accumulated skills, which can be used to gauge their competitiveness in the work place. The findings generated by these studies will shed light on whether the extent of racial wage discrimination varies with workplace context and with phenotypical attributes. Thus, new insights will be gained on the appropriate form of policies to redress wage discrimination and on the likely feasibility of implementing such policy initiatives. Undergraduate students at Washington and Lee University, who are members of a minority group and who plan to attend graduate school in the social sciences or humanities, will be part of the research team conducting these studies. These students will participate in the Minority Undergraduate Research Assistant Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the summer.

这个项目扩展了经济学家关于黑人和白人工资差异的知识，通过检验两个假设来解释为什么某些黑人工人群体的种族工资差距可能更大。首先，我们假设，作为经济上处于次要地位的群体获得了更具竞争力的劳动力市场属性，他们将面临更大程度的劳动力市场歧视，从而维持有利于占主导地位的群体的社会等级。我们将这一假说称为歧视的功能性。我们将进行各种测试，比较拥有不同数量理想劳动力市场特征的黑人工人之间不明原因的工资差异水平，这是衡量歧视的标准指标。其次，我们提出，与其他方面具有可比性的深色黑人相比，浅色肤色的黑人从同事合作中受益更多，这将导致浅色黑人的种族工资差距较小。我们提出了这样一个概念，即皮肤阴影和工作效率之间存在联系，因为工作环境是一个人际互动影响工作表现的社会环境。在我们看来，同事之间的技能可以相互分享，从而提高个人生产率和工资。然而，同事之间的合作(包括技能共享)很可能取决于共同点，我们设想表型相似是一种共同点，员工可以围绕这种共同点结成联盟。因此，我们预计白人工人通常比黑人工人工作得更好，他们会更合作地与肤色较浅的黑人合作。如果是这样的话，与白人同事一起工作，肤色较浅的黑人将比其他肤色较深的黑人更有效率，这将转化为肤色较浅的黑人的更高工资。这项研究使用了1979年收集的全国黑人调查(NSBA)的数据和全国美国生活调查(NSAL)的数据，该数据类似于全国美国黑人调查，但收集于2001年，用于估计工资公式。估计公式将揭示肤色对工资的贡献，估计将揭示，对于那些被认为在工作场所具有高度竞争力的黑人来说，黑人和白人之间莫名其妙的工资差异是否会更大。由于两项调查相隔20年，因此可以探索肤色和工资之间的关系是如何随着时间的推移而变化的。研究中使用的数据集是独一无二的，因为它们提供了关于一个人的肤色的数据，以及关于一个人是否在团队中工作的信息。对于工作组成员，有关于其工作组规模和种族构成的信息。这些数据集还提供了关于个人认知能力和积累的技能的信息，这些信息可以用来衡量他们在工作场所的竞争力。这些研究产生的结果将阐明种族工资歧视的程度是否会随着工作场所的背景和表型特征的不同而不同。因此，将获得关于纠正工资歧视的适当政策形式以及实施这种政策举措的可能可行性的新见解。华盛顿大学和李大学的本科生是少数族裔群体的成员，计划进入社会科学或人文学科的研究生院学习，他们将成为进行这些研究的研究团队的一部分。这些学生将在夏季参加北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的少数民族本科生研究助理计划。