CAREER: Long-Run Determinants of Racial Inequality in the US

职业：美国种族不平等的长期决定因素

• 批准号: 2238373
• 负责人: Ellora Derenoncourt
• 金额: $ 59.7万
• 依托单位: National Bureau of Economic Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-03-01 至 2028-02-29
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2238373&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Long; Run; Determinants; Racial

Economic disparities between Black and White Americans remain one of the most striking forms of inequality in the US today. Much of the economics literature on racial inequality focuses on the role of discrimination, yet this framework explains a declining share of the gaps between Black and White Americans. This CAREER research uses three projects and a historical perspective to identify the determinants of racial disparities and shed light on the channels through which these gaps occur and persist. The project combines original data collection with natural experiments and focuses on historical and institutional determinants of racial income and wealth inequality. The first project studies the effects of political disenfranchisement of Blacks in Jim Crow South on Black wealth accumulation while the second project studies the role of US social insurance and labor policy design in generating and perpetuating racial wealth inequality. The third project will study the link between the Great Migration North and mass incarceration policies in the North that disproportionately affected Black men, putting them at a severe disadvantage in the labor market. Each of these projects involves the collection and digitization of large original historical data. The results of this research project will provide important inputs into policies to reduce income and wealth inequality as well as generate equitable growth. This CAREER research uses three projects to advance the literature in economic history and labor economics. The first project explores the determinants of slow racial wealth convergence from the abolition of slavery to the present, testing for the effect of political dis-empowerment on wealth accumulation by studying the growth of Black wealth under Jim Crow. It digitizes annual, county-level records of Black and White wealth for six southern states and uses the staggered rollout of state laws limiting Black franchise to assess the impact of franchise restrictions on economic mobility. The second project explores the role of US social insurance and labor policy design in the evolution of racial inequality. The project digitizes state-level unemployment insurance policy from 1937 to 2020 and examines the role of demographic change on state policies as well as the impact of changes in eligibility and generosity on racial gaps. The third project investigates the link between the Great Migration North and the phenomenon of mass incarceration, which disproportionately affected Black men and placed them at serious disadvantage in the labor market. The project constructs causal jurisdiction severity measures from criminal court records from dozens of northern states as well as data on municipal ordinances spanning the 20th century. It uses these data to investigate the link between the Great Migration North and increased reliance on punitive social policy in American cities that leads to mass incarceration of Black men. The results of this research project will provide important inputs into policies to reduce income inequality as well as generate equitable growth.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

美国黑人和白色人之间的经济差距仍然是当今美国最引人注目的不平等形式之一。许多关于种族不平等的经济学文献都集中在歧视的作用上，但这一框架解释了美国黑人和白色人之间差距的下降。 这项职业生涯研究使用三个项目和历史的角度来确定种族差异的决定因素，并阐明这些差距发生和持续的渠道。该项目将原始数据收集与自然实验相结合，重点关注种族收入和财富不平等的历史和制度决定因素。第一个项目研究了黑人在吉姆·克劳南部的政治权利被剥夺对黑人财富积累的影响，而第二个项目研究了美国社会保险和劳动政策设计在产生和维持种族财富不平等中的作用。 第三个项目将研究北方大移民与北方大规模监禁政策之间的联系，这些政策对黑人男性产生了不成比例的影响，使他们在劳动力市场上处于严重劣势。 这些项目中的每一个都涉及大量原始历史数据的收集和数字化。 该研究项目的成果将为减少收入和财富不平等以及实现公平增长的政策提供重要投入。这项职业研究使用三个项目来推进经济史和劳动经济学的文献。第一个项目探讨了从废除奴隶制到现在的缓慢种族财富趋同的决定因素，通过研究吉姆·克劳（Jim Crow）统治下黑人财富的增长来测试政治赋权对财富积累的影响。它将南部六个州的黑人和白色财富的年度县级记录数字化，并利用限制黑人特许经营权的州法律的交错推出来评估特许经营权限制对经济流动性的影响。第二个项目探讨了美国社会保险和劳动政策设计在种族不平等演变中的作用。该项目将1937年至2020年的州一级失业保险政策数字化，并研究人口变化对州政策的作用，以及资格和慷慨程度变化对种族差距的影响。第三个项目调查了大规模监禁现象与大规模移民之间的联系，大规模监禁对黑人男性的影响不成比例，使他们在劳动力市场上处于严重不利地位。该项目从北方数十个州的刑事法庭记录以及跨越20世纪世纪的市政法令数据中构建因果管辖权严重程度衡量标准。它使用这些数据来调查大移民北方和美国城市对惩罚性社会政策的依赖增加之间的联系，这些政策导致黑人男性的大规模监禁。 该研究项目的成果将为减少收入不平等和促进公平增长的政策提供重要投入。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。