IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v83y1993i1p234-47.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Decline in Black Teenage Labor-Force Participation in the South, 1900-1970: The Role of Schooling

Author

Listed:
  • Margo, Robert A
  • Finegan, T Aldrich

Abstract

Between 1950 and 1970 the labor force participation rate of southern black males aged 16-19 declined by 27 percentage points. This decline has been attributed to two demand-side shocks: the mechanization of cotton agriculture in the 1950s and extensions in the coverage of the federal minimum wage in the 1960s. We show, however, that participation rates of southern black teens fell continuously between 1900 and 1950. The proximate causes of the pre-1950 decline in black teen participation were increases in school enrollment rates and decreases in labor force participation by teens enrolled in school. Because the underlying causes of both effects had not run their course by mid-century, we conclude that about half of the post-1950 decline in black teen participation in the South would have occurred even if cotton agriculture had not mechanized in the 1950s or coverage of the minimum wage had not been extended in the 1960s.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Margo, Robert A & Finegan, T Aldrich, 1993. "The Decline in Black Teenage Labor-Force Participation in the South, 1900-1970: The Role of Schooling," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 234-247, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:83:y:1993:i:1:p:234-47
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Smith, James P, 1986. "Race and Human Capital: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 1225-1229, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Canaday, Neil & Tamura, Robert, 2009. "White discrimination in provision of black education: Plantations and towns," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1490-1530, July.
    2. Robert W. Fairlie & William A. Sundstrom, 1999. "The Emergence, Persistence, and Recent Widening of the Racial Unemployment Gap," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 52(2), pages 252-270, January.
    3. Gary M. Anderson & Dennis Halcoussis, 1996. "The Political Economy Of Legal Segregation: Jim Crow And Racial Employment Patterns," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1), pages 1-15, March.
    4. Shirit Katav-Herz, 2001. "Social Conformity and Child Labor," Working Papers 2001-14, Bar-Ilan University, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert A. Margo, 1993. "Explaining Black-White Wage Convergence, 1940-1950: The Role of the Great Compression," NBER Historical Working Papers 0044, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Canaday, Neil & Tamura, Robert, 2009. "White discrimination in provision of black education: Plantations and towns," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1490-1530, July.
    3. White, T. Kirk, 2007. "Initial conditions at Emancipation: The long-run effect on black-white wealth and earnings inequality," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 31(10), pages 3370-3395, October.
    4. Collins, William J. & Margo, Robert A., 2006. "Historical Perspectives on Racial Differences in Schooling in the United States," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & F. Welch (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 3, pages 107-154, Elsevier.
    5. James P. Smith, 2003. "Assimilation across the Latino Generations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 315-319, May.
    6. Dora L. Costa, 2004. "Race and Older Age Mortality: Evidence from Union Army Veterans," NBER Working Papers 10902, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:83:y:1993:i:1:p:234-47. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.