The persistence of racial economic inequality is one of the central issues in American society. In analyzing this problem, an understanding of history is tremendously important. We need a long-term view to identify how racial inequality has been altered by changing legal and market conditions, and also to see periods of long-term rigidity in racial gaps and to identify the sources of this rigidity. My research has focused on the measurement and analysis of the long-term path of racial inequality in US labor markets in the 20th century. Much of my research has been aimed at improving our measurement of racial differences in the labor market, both in terms of wages and working conditions. I have also examined the effects of personnel policies on patterns of labor market inequality. I am also interested in the relationship between migration and black economic mobility in the World War I era. Most of this work involves quantitative analysis based on large microdata samples, including US Census samples and firm-level personnel records. I have also worked on constructing new, longitudinal data sets using Census manuscripts, city directories, selective service records, and other archival sources.
My teaching has been concentrated in US economic history (at the introductory, upper-division, and graduate levels), labor economics, and the analysis of discrimination and economic inequality.
"Wage Compression and Wage Inequality Between Black and White Males in the United States, 1940-1960," Journal of Economic History 54:2 (June 1994).
"Racial Segregation, Working Conditions, and Workers' Health: Evidence from the A.M. Byers Company, 1916-1930," Explorations in Economic History 35:3 (July 1998).
"Personnel Policy, Costs of Experimentation, and Racial Inequality in the Pre-World War II North," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 30:2 (Autumn 1999).
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