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Author: Ferguson, Ronald F.
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Ferguson, Ronald F.
New Evidence on the Growing Value of Skill and Consequences for Racial Disparity and Returns to Schooling
Working Paper R93-34, John F. Kennedy School of Government Faculty Research, Harvard University, September 1993
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: John F. Kennedy School of Government
Keyword(s): Benefits, Fringe; Educational Returns; Human Capital; Racial Differences; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT; Training; Training, On-the-Job; Wage Differentials; Wage Gap; Wage Levels

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This study uses test scores to establish that the market value of basic reading and math skills rose during the 1980's. Further, the rising price of skill accounts for two patterns over which labor economists have puzzled since the late 1980's: growth in the return to schooling for young men and increases in the wage gap between young black and white adult males. The gap in skill between young black and white males was narrowing during the 1980's, but not rapidly enough to offset growth in the price of skill. Hence, disparity rose. Data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 Panel. Most of the study focuses on one age level in order to avoid ambiguity associated with mixing age groups. Estimating a series of overlapping cross-section regressions, each using three years of data, the paper shows a smooth but nonlinear trend in which most of the increase in the price of skill came in the first half of the decade.
Bibliography Citation
Ferguson, Ronald F. "New Evidence on the Growing Value of Skill and Consequences for Racial Disparity and Returns to Schooling." Working Paper R93-34, John F. Kennedy School of Government Faculty Research, Harvard University, September 1993.
2. Ferguson, Ronald F.
Shifting Challenges: Fifty Years of Economic Change Toward Black-White Earnings Equality
In: An American Dilemma Revisited: Race Relations in a Changing World. C. Obie, Jr., ed. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1996: pp. 76-111
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Keyword(s): Affirmative Action; Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Education; Employment; Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO); Illegal Activities; Migration; Migration Patterns; Racial Differences; Regions; Schooling; Skills; Unions; Wage Differentials; Wage Gap; Wages

Argues that wage & employment differentials between whites & blacks are explained by the fact that basic skills of young black workers are not, on average, as well matched to shifting patterns in the market demand for labor as are their white counterparts, controlling for schooling levels and regional differences. A review of black employment 1940-1975 suggests that progress made by blacks in those years was due to black migration away from southern states, improvements in quality of education, and the dismantling of overt discrimination in the labor market. However, it is observed that such progress has been stifled since 1975 due to skills-based market changes to which whites have reacted better than blacks. Data from the 1980 Armed Forces Qualifications Test component of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are consulted to demonstrate that disparities in reading & math skills account for much of the wage differential between whites and blacks. However, it is also noted that the skill differential between whites and blacks has been declining, which suggests that either the value of skill rose faster than the gap closed, or blacks were earning more than whites with similar skills in the pre-1975 period. 2 Tables, 8 Figures. D. M. Smith (Copyright 1996, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.)
Bibliography Citation
Ferguson, Ronald F. "Shifting Challenges: Fifty Years of Economic Change Toward Black-White Earnings Equality" In: An American Dilemma Revisited: Race Relations in a Changing World. C. Obie, Jr., ed. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1996: pp. 76-111