This paper assesses the relative contribution of the public and private sectors, through their employment and wages, to the black/white wage convergence that occurred in the U.S. economy over the 1963–92 period. Applying standard decomposition methods to Current Population Survey data,...

Self-employed workers are less likely to be affected by implicit contracts, efficiency wages, and other forces that mute wage cyclicality and exacerbate employment cyclicality. This observation motivates the authors' comparison of the cyclical experience of the self-employed with 'wage and...

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Affirmative Action apply most forcefully to large employers. The laws' focus on large employers implies that if Title VII and Affirmative Action were effective, then large employers should have increased their relative employment of blacks and women in...

This paper assesses the relative contribution of the public and private sectors, through their employment and wages, to the black/white wage convergence that occurred in the U.S. economy over the 1963-92 period. Applying standard decomposition methods to Current Population Survey data, the...