The impact of city contracting set-asides on black self-employment and employment

Arbeitspapier

In the 1980s, many U.S. cities initiated programs reserving a proportion of government contracts for minority-owned businesses. The staggered introduction of these set-aside programs is used to estimate their impacts on the self-employment and employment rates of African-American men. Black business ownership rates increased significantly after program initiation, with the black-white gap falling three percentage points. The evidence that the racial gap in employment also fell is less clear as it is depends on assumptions about the continuation of pre-existing trends. The black gains were concentrated in industries heavily affected by set-asides and mostly benefited the better educated.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 7298

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination ; Entrepreneurship
• Subject: entrepreneurship ; self-employment ; race ; black ; African-American ; contracting ; affirmative action

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Chatterji, Aaron K. ; Chay, Kenneth Y. ; Fairlie, Robert W.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2013

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/71676
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET