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Race, Educational Attainment, and the 1940 Census

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  • Margo, Robert A.

Abstract

Decreases in the racial schooling gap have been shown to account for one-third of the increase in the black-white income ratio from 1930 to 1970. But the usual measure of the gap, based on census educational attainment data, is flawed. Data on school enrollment rates and months of school attended reveal that schooling levels of blacks born in the late nineteeth century were far lower than census data indicate. With the corrections proposed, the narrowing of the racial schooling gap explains two-thirds of the rise in the black-white income ratio from 1930 to 1970.

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  • Margo, Robert A., 1986. "Race, Educational Attainment, and the 1940 Census," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 189-198, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:46:y:1986:i:01:p:189-198_04
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    Cited by:

    1. Celeste K. Carruthers & Marianne H. Wanamaker, 2017. "Separate and Unequal in the Labor Market: Human Capital and the Jim Crow Wage Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(3), pages 655-696.
    2. Krzysztof Karbownik & Anthony Wray, 2019. "Long-Run Consequences of Exposure to Natural Disasters," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(3), pages 949-1007.
    3. David Card & Leah Clark & Ciprian Domnisoru & Lowell Taylor, 2024. "School Equalization in the Shadow of Jim Crow: Causes and Consequences of Resource Disparity in Mississippi circa 1940," Working Papers 24-25, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    4. David Card & Ciprian Domnisoru & Lowell Taylor, 2022. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital: Evidence from the Golden Age of Upward Mobility," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(S1), pages 39-95.
    5. Hoyt Bleakley & Dora Costa & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2014. "Health, Education, and Income in the United States, 1820–2000," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital in History: The American Record, pages 121-159, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. William J. Collins & Melissa A. Thomasson, 2004. "The Declining Contribution of Socioeconomic Disparities to the Racial Gap in Infant Mortality Rates, 1920‐1970," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 70(4), pages 746-776, April.
    7. William J. Collins & Michael Q. Moody, 2017. "Racial Differences in American Women's Labor Market Outcomes: A Long-Run View," NBER Working Papers 23397, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Keith Meyers & Melissa A. Thomasson, 2021. "Can pandemics affect educational attainment? Evidence from the polio epidemic of 1916," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 15(2), pages 231-265, May.
    9. Loury, Linda Datcher, 2009. "Am I still too Black for you?: Schooling and secular change in skin tone effects," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 428-433, August.

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