Competition and the Racial Wage Gap: Testing Becker's Model of Employer Discrimination

Arbeitspapier

According to Becker's (1957) theory of taste-based employer discrimination, pure economic rents are necessary for discrimination to be observed in the labor market. Increased competition and reduced rents in the market for final goods should therefore lead to reduced labor market discrimination. We look at the natural experiment represented by the Brazilian trade liberalization from the early 1990s to study the effect of increased competition in the market for final goods on racial discrimination in the labor market. Changes in tariffs and initial employment structures are used to show that, in locations where there were relatively larger increases in exposure to foreign competition between 1990 and 1995, there were also relatively larger declines in the conditional racial wage gap between 1991 and 2000. As predicted by theory, the initial wage gap and its decline were more pronounced in regions with more employment in concentrated sectors. The effect of increased competition on the racial wage gap was not driven by changes in returns to productive attributes, in the structure of employment, or in other labor market outcomes. We find robust evidence of a negative effect of increased competition in the market for final goods on discrimination in the labor market.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 9764

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials ; Labor Discrimination ; Labor Discrimination: Public Policy ; Economic Impacts of Globalization: Labor
• Thema: discrimination ; racial wage gap ; competition ; labor market ; trade reform ; Brazil

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Hirata, Guilherme ; Soares, Rodrigo R.
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (wo): Bonn
• (wann): 2016

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/141523
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ