Racial Segregation, Employment, and Income in the U.S., 1970-2010 (thesis)

Abstract

In this paper, I analyze the relationship between racial segregation and income for black and white male workers during this period. I find that racial segregation continues a previously observed downward trend through 2010. Nevertheless, my findings suggest that increased racial segregation is linked to worsened black incomes between 1990 and 2010, especially for low-income black workers. Additionally, I report a previously unobserved negative association between racial segregation and income for both low-income white and high-income black workers that emerges in 2000. Moreover, I find that racial segregation is negatively associated with employment outcomes for black workers, most notably for black high school graduates and dropouts. My results indicate that racial segregation may distort the returns to schooling for black workers. My findings are robust to the inclusion of income and education segregation as well as black income and black education segregation measures.