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Racial Inequality in the 21st Century: The Declining Significance of Discrimination

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  • Roland G. Fryer, Jr
Abstract
There are large and important differences between blacks and whites in nearly every facet of life - earnings, unemployment, incarceration, health, and so on. This chapter contains three themes. First, relative to the 20th century, the significance of discrimination as an explanation for racial inequality across economic and social indicators has declined. Racial differences in social and economic outcomes are greatly reduced when one accounts for educational achievement; therefore, the new challenge is to understand the obstacles undermining the development of skill in black and Hispanic children in primary and secondary school. Second, analyzing ten large datasets that include children ranging in age from eight months old to seventeen years old, I demonstrate that the racial achievement gap is remarkably robust across time, samples, and particular assessments used. The gap does not exist in the first year of life, but black students fall behind quickly thereafter and observables cannot explain differences between racial groups after kindergarten. Third, we provide a brief history of efforts to close the achievement gap. There are several programs -- various early childhood interventions, more flexibility and stricter accountability for schools, data-driven instruction, smaller class sizes, certain student incentives, and bonuses for effective teachers to teach in high-need schools, which have a positive return on investment, but they cannot close the achievement gap in isolation. More promising are results from a handful of high-performing charter schools, which combine many of the investments above in a comprehensive framework and provide an "existence proof" -- demonstrating that a few simple investments can dramatically increase the achievement of even the poorest minority students. The challenge for the future is to take these examples to scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Roland G. Fryer, Jr, 2010. "Racial Inequality in the 21st Century: The Declining Significance of Discrimination," NBER Working Papers 16256, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16256
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    1. "A Post-Racial Strategy for Improving Skills to Promote Equality"
      by Mark Thoma in Economist's View on 2011-03-20 07:38:00

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    1. Nicholas W. Papageorge & Seth Gershenson & Kyung Min Kang, 2020. "Teacher Expectations Matter," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(2), pages 234-251, May.
    2. Battaglia, Marianna & Lebedinski, Lara, 2015. "Equal Access to Education: An Evaluation of the Roma Teaching Assistant Program in Serbia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 62-81.
    3. Roland G. Fryer, Jr. & Devah Pager & Jörg L. Spenkuch, 2013. "Racial Disparities in Job Finding and Offered Wages," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(3), pages 633-689.
    4. Roland G. Fryer, Jr, 2016. "The Production of Human Capital in Developed Countries: Evidence from 196 Randomized Field Experiments," NBER Working Papers 22130, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Stijn Broecke & Glenda Quintini & Marieke Vandeweyer, 2018. "Wage Inequality and Cognitive Skills: Reopening the Debate," NBER Chapters, in: Education, Skills, and Technical Change: Implications for Future US GDP Growth, pages 251-286, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Mok, Wallace & Siddique, Zahra, 2011. "Racial and Ethnic Inequality in Employer Provided Fringe Benefits," IZA Discussion Papers 6255, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Philip J. Cook & Kenneth Dodge & George Farkas & Roland G. Fryer, Jr & Jonathan Guryan & Jens Ludwig & Susan Mayer & Harold Pollack & Laurence Steinberg, 2014. "The (Surprising) Efficacy of Academic and Behavioral Intervention with Disadvantaged Youth: Results from a Randomized Experiment in Chicago," NBER Working Papers 19862, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. repec:wyi:journl:002164 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Liuba Kogan Cogan & Joanna Kámiche Zegarra & Patricia Lay Ferrato, 2011. "¿El origen socioeconómico y la raza pagan? Un estudio interdisciplinario sobre la discriminación racial y socioeconómica en el ámbito empresarial limeño”. El caso de los egresados de la Universidad de," Working Papers 11-17, Centro de Investigación, Universidad del Pacífico.
    10. Marianna Battaglia & Lara Lebedinski, 2014. "The Curse of Low Aspirations: Remedial Education and Perceived Returns to Education of Roma People," Working Papers. Serie AD 2014-04, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    11. Catherine Ris, 2013. "Les inégalités ethniques dans l'accès à l'emploi en Nouvelle-Calédonie," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 464(1), pages 59-72.
    12. Catherine Weinberger, 2014. "Are There Racial Gaps in High School Leadership Opportunities? Do Academics Matter More?," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 41(4), pages 393-409, December.
    13. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren, 2018. "The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility II: County-Level Estimates," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(3), pages 1163-1228.
    14. Nathaniel Hilger, 2016. "Upward Mobility and Discrimination: The Case of Asian Americans," NBER Working Papers 22748, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Ross Levine & Alexey Levkov & Yona Rubinstein, 2008. "Racial Discrimination and Competition," NBER Working Papers 14273, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. John Cullinan & Kevin Denny & Darragh Flannery, 2021. "A distributional analysis of upper secondary school performance," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 1085-1113, February.
    17. Battaglia, Marianna & Lebedinski, Lara, 2022. "With a little help from my friends: Medium-Term effects of a remedial education program targeting Roma minority," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    18. Catherine Ris & Samuel Gorohouna, 2013. "Decomposing differences in employment outcomes between Kanak and other New Caledonians - how important is the role of school achievement?," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 16(1), pages 115-135.
    19. Tito Boeri & Jan van Ours, 2013. "The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets: Second Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10142.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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