1994/08/01 by John F. Zipp
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Labor market dynamics and wage inequality #Labor Movements and Unions #Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
paper · doi:10.2307/3096968
Through both its direct employment and its policies, the public sector historically has provided an important avenue for the upward mobility of blacks. However, the conservative Reagan-Bush agenda of the 1980s greatly redefined the role of government in promoting racial equality, and this paper tests to see if the advantages that blacks have obtained from government employment changed across the decade. Utilizing the 1980 and 1990 CPS microdata, I find that racial inequality increased in the federal government and that, concomitantly, the benefits for blacks working for the federal government decreased between 1980 and 1990. I conclude with the implications of these results for both research and policy.