Abstract
During much of the 20th century, each successive generation of black Americans came closer to its white counterparts in terms of educational achievement and labour market success. This pattern of black–white progress has stalled since the mid-1980s. This chapter documents the current levels of black–white inequality in terms of human capital and labour market outcomes and then discusses factors that may sustain and perpetuate current levels of black–white inequality. It is much easier to understand the record of black–white progress during earlier decades than to understand the lack of progress in recent years.
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Neal, D. (2018). Black–White Labour Market Inequality in the United States. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2446
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2446
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