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Author: Johnson, William R.
Resulting in 6 citations.
1. Johnson, William R.
Are Public Subsidies to Higher Education Regressive?
Education Finance and Policy 1,3 (Summer 2006): 288-315.
Also: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/edfp.2006.1.3.288
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: MIT Press
Keyword(s): Higher Education; Household Income; Income Distribution; Income Level; Life Cycle Research; Taxes; Tuition

This article estimates the dollar amount of public higher education subsidies received by U.S. youth and examines the distribution of subsidies and the taxes that finance them across parental and student income levels. Although youths from high-income families obtain more benefit from higher education subsidies, high income households pay sufficiently more in taxes that the net effect of the spending and associated taxation is distributionally neutral or mildly progressive. These results are robust to alternative assumptions and are consistent with Hansen and Weisbrod's earlier celebrated findings for California, although not with the conclusions often drawn from those findings.
Bibliography Citation
Johnson, William R. "Are Public Subsidies to Higher Education Regressive?" Education Finance and Policy 1,3 (Summer 2006): 288-315.
2. Johnson, William R.
Job Shopping Among Young Men
Final Report, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 1980
Cohort(s): Young Men
Publisher: U.S. Department of Labor
Keyword(s): Career Patterns; Educational Attainment; Mobility; Mobility, Job; Socioeconomic Status (SES); Wages; Work History; Work Knowledge

The causes and effects of job mobility among young men are examined. The effect of job mobility in the first five years of a worker's career is to improve matches between workers and job while mobility in the second five years does not appear to be efficient since it reduces wages and increases wage dispersion. Early mobility can be explained by unlucky first job matches and imperfect information about the labor market. Later mobility is reduced only by formal education. Race and family background do not affect job mobility when other factors are accounted for. Hence, the conclusion that some identifiable racial or social groups have "pathological" rates of job mobility does not seem to be warranted.
Bibliography Citation
Johnson, William R. "Job Shopping Among Young Men." Final Report, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 1980.
3. Johnson, William R.
Kitamura, Yuichi
Neal, Derek A.
Evaluating a Simple Method for Estimating Black-White Gaps in Median Wages
The American Economic Review 90,2 (May 2000): 339-343.
Also: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.90.2.339
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Economic Association
Keyword(s): Discrimination; Discrimination, Racial/Ethnic; Employment; Racial Differences; Wage Differentials

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

A model is developed to estimate black-white gaps in median wages. Data were gathered from average wages earned during the period 1990-91 and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Findings reveal that imputing wages of zero for unemployed individuals may provide a reasonable method for the estimation of median wage regressions among men. Findings imply that data drawn from short panels rather than single-year cross-sections may mitigate the need for additional imputations and reduce the occurrence of imputation error. Tables show median regression results using various wage imputation methods and new wage observations two years after and two years before the original sample. Copyright: Database Producer Copyright (c) the H.W. Wilson Company. All rights reserved.
Bibliography Citation
Johnson, William R., Yuichi Kitamura and Derek A. Neal. "Evaluating a Simple Method for Estimating Black-White Gaps in Median Wages." The American Economic Review 90,2 (May 2000): 339-343.
4. Johnson, William R.
Neal, Derek A.
Basic Skills and the Black-White Earnings Gap
In: The Black-White Test Score Gap. C. Jencks, and M. Phillips, et al., eds. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1998: pp. 480-497
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Brookings Institution
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Earnings; Education; Ethnic Differences; Labor Market Outcomes; Racial Differences; Skills; Wage Gap; Wages, Youth

Chapter: Examined the relationship between basic skills and annual earnings, using scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test for the young members of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth as a measure of the skills that young adults bring to the labor market. Labor market outcomes were measured when workers were in their late 20s and early 30s. Findings indicate that skills are important determinants of wages and earnings. Skill differences explain a substantial part of the wage and earnings variation among Blacks, among Whites, and between Blacks and Whites. For men, the Black-White gap in annual earnings is more than twice as large as the gap in hourly wages. Further, the racial difference not explained by skills is three times as large for annual earnings as for hourly wages. The low earnings of Black men are partly attributable to the fact that less educated Black men work significantly fewer hours and weeks than their White counterparts. Less work experience during their early years in the job market has a notable effect on the wage gap faced by less educated Black men in their late 20s and early 30s. Finally, the relationship between basic skills and eventual earnings is stronger among Black men than White men. ((c) 1998 APA/PsycINFO, all rights reserved):
Bibliography Citation
Johnson, William R. and Derek A. Neal. "Basic Skills and the Black-White Earnings Gap" In: The Black-White Test Score Gap. C. Jencks, and M. Phillips, et al., eds. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1998: pp. 480-497
5. Neal, Derek A.
Johnson, William R.
The Role of Pre-Market Factors in Black-White Wage Differences
Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Chicago, March 23, 1994
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Chicago
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Discrimination, Job; Family Background and Culture; Minorities; Racial Differences; School Progress; Wage Differentials; Wage Effects; Wage Equations

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

Many attempts to measure the wage effects of current labor market discrimination against minorities include controls for worker productivity that (1) could themselves be affected by discrimination and (2) are very imprecise measures of worker skill. The resulting estimates of residual wage gaps may be biased. Our approach is a parsimoniously specified wage equation which controls for skill with the score of a test administered as teenagers prepared to leave high school and embark on work careers or postsecondary education. This test score is a racially unbiased measure of the skills and abilities these teenagers were about to bring to the labor market. This research finds that this one test score explains all of the black-white gap for young women and much of the gap for young men, a bigger share than has been found by many other studies. For today's young adults, the black-white wage gap is primarily due to a skill gap, which in turn can be traced, at least in part, to observable differences in children's family backgrounds and local environments. We have suggestive evidence that school quality contributes to the skill gap for males. While the results do not deny the existence of labor market discrimination, skill gaps play such a large role that we believe future research should focus on the obstacles black children face in acquiring productive skill.
Bibliography Citation
Neal, Derek A. and William R. Johnson. "The Role of Pre-Market Factors in Black-White Wage Differences." Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Chicago, March 23, 1994.
6. Neal, Derek A.
Johnson, William R.
The Role of Pre-Market Factors in Black-White Wage Differences
NBER Working Paper No. 5124, National Bureau of Economic Research, May 1995.
Also: http://nber.nber.org/papers/W5124
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Keyword(s): Discrimination, Racial/Ethnic; Family Background and Culture; Labor Market Segmentation; Racial Differences; Schooling, Post-secondary; Skills; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT; Wage Differentials; Wage Gap

Many attempts to measure the wage effects of current labor market discrimination against minorities include controls for worker productivity that (1) could themselves be affected by market discrimination and (2) are very imprecise measures of worker skill. The resulting estimates of residual wage gaps may be biased. Our approach is a parsimoniously specified wage equation which controls for skill with the score of a test administered as teenagers prepared to leave high school and embark on work careers or post-secondary education. Independent evidence shows that this test score is a racially unbiased measure of the skills and abilities these teenagers were about to bring to the labor market. We find that this one test score explains all of the black-white wage gap for young women and much of the gap for young men. For today's young adults, the black-white wage gap primarily reflects a skill gap, which in turn can be traced. at least in part, to observable differences in the family backgrounds and school environments of black and white children. While our results do provide some evidence of current labor market discrimination, skill gaps play such a large role that we believe future research should focus on the obstacles black children face in acquiring productive skills. Full-text available on-line: http://nber.nber.org/papers/W5124
Bibliography Citation
Neal, Derek A. and William R. Johnson. "The Role of Pre-Market Factors in Black-White Wage Differences." NBER Working Paper No. 5124, National Bureau of Economic Research, May 1995.