IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eej/eeconj/v26y2000i2p145-156.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Motor Bus Deregulation and the Gender Wage Gap: A Test of the Becker Hypothesis

Author

Listed:
  • Ann Schwarz-Miller

    (Old Dominion University)

  • Wayne IL Talley

    (Economics Department, Old Dominion University)

Abstract

This study provides a test of Becker's hypothesis that wage discrimination within an industry depends on the degree of market competition by analyzing earnings in a deregulated transportation sector--the motor bus industry. The empirical findings provide strong support for the hypothesis that motor bus deregulation, by creating an increasingly competitive environment, makes discrimination more costly and provides greater incentives for firms to employ female drivers. The earnings status of unionized white female drivers relative to white males improved significantly subsequent to deregulation, with female wages increasing even as the real wage level for male drivers declined.

Suggested Citation

  • Ann Schwarz-Miller & Wayne IL Talley, 2000. "Motor Bus Deregulation and the Gender Wage Gap: A Test of the Becker Hypothesis," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 26(2), pages 145-156, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:eej:eeconj:v:26:y:2000:i:2:p:145-156
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://web.holycross.edu/RePEc/eej/Archive/Volume26/V26N2P145_156.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John S. Heywood, 1987. "Wage Discrimination and Market Structure," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(4), pages 617-628, July.
    2. Peoples, James H, Jr, 1994. "Monopolistic Market Structure, Unionization, and Racial Wage Differentials," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(1), pages 207-211, February.
    3. Black, Dan A, 1995. "Discrimination in an Equilibrium Search Model," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(2), pages 309-333, April.
    4. Walter Haessel & John Palmer, 1978. "Market Power and Employment Discrimination," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 13(4), pages 545-560.
    5. Heywood, John S & Peoples, James H, Jr, 1994. "Deregulation and the Prevalence of Black Truck Drivers," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(1), pages 133-155, April.
    6. Barry T. Hirsch, 1988. "Trucking Regulation, Unionization, and Labor Earnings: 1973-85," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 23(3), pages 296-319.
    7. Rose, Nancy L, 1987. "Labor Rent Sharing and Regulation: Evidence from the Trucking Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(6), pages 1146-1178, December.
    8. Orley Ashenfelter & Timothy Hannan, 1986. "Sex Discrimination and Product Market Competition: The Case of the Banking Industry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(1), pages 149-173.
    9. James Peoples & Lisa Saunders, 1993. "Trucking Deregulation and the Black/White Wage Gap," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 47(1), pages 23-35, October.
    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. Natália Monteiro, 2009. "Regulatory reform and labour earnings in Portuguese banking," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 557-574, June.
    2. Natália Pimenta Monteiro, 2004. "Regulatory reform and the Portuguese banking labour market: two decades later," NIPE Working Papers 10/2004, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.

    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. Schwarz-Miller, Ann & Talley, Wayne K., 1997. "Motor Bus Deregulation and Racial/Gender Effects: Earnings and Employment," Transportation Research Forum Proceedings 1990s 319179, Transportation Research Forum.
    2. Jacqueline Agesa, 1998. "The impact of deregulation on employment discrimination in the trucking industry," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 26(3), pages 288-303, September.
    3. Clémence Berson, 2016. "Local labor markets and taste-based discrimination," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-21, December.
    4. Azim Essaji & Gregory Sweeney & Alexandros Kotsopoulos, 2010. "Equality through exposure to imports? International trade and the racial wage gap," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 313-323.
    5. Heywood, John S & Peoples, James H, Jr, 1994. "Deregulation and the Prevalence of Black Truck Drivers," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(1), pages 133-155, April.
    6. Clémence Berson, 2012. "Does Competition Induce Hiring Equity ?," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00718627, HAL.
    7. Monaco, Kristen A. & Brooks, Taggert J., 2001. "Deregulation and wages in trucking: A time series phenomenon -- A time series approach," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 55-69, January.
    8. Stijn Baert & Bart Cockx & Niels Gheyle & Cora Vandamme, 2013. "Do Employers Discriminate Less if Vacancies are Difficult to Fill? Evidence from a Field Experiment," CESifo Working Paper Series 4093, CESifo.
    9. Jacqueline Agesa & Kristen Monaco, 2006. "The Decreasing Influence Of Domestic Market Structure On Racial Earnings Differentials: 1984 To 1996," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 24(2), pages 224-236, April.
    10. Jacqueline Agesa, 2001. "Deregulation and the Racial Composition of Airlines," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 223-237.
    11. Natália Pimenta Monteiro, 2004. "Regulatory reform and the Portuguese banking labour market: two decades later," NIPE Working Papers 10/2004, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    12. repec:mse:cesdoc:09059r is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Burks, Stephen V. & Guy, Frederick, 2012. "What Are Over-the-Road Truckers Paid For? Evidence from an Exogenous Regulatory Change on the Role of Social Comparisons and Work Organization in Wage Determination," IZA Discussion Papers 6375, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Rodriguez, Daniel A. & Rocha, Marta & Belzer, Michael H., 2004. "3. The Effects Of Trucking Firm Financial Performance On Driver Safety," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 35-55, January.
    15. Andrea Weber & Christine Zulehner, 2014. "Competition And Gender Prejudice: Are Discriminatory Employers Doomed To Fail?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 492-521, April.
    16. Fanfani, Bernardo, 2022. "Tastes for discrimination in monopsonistic labour markets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    17. Ross Levine & Alexey Levkov & Yona Rubinstein, 2008. "Racial Discrimination and Competition," NBER Working Papers 14273, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. David E. Davis & Wesley W. Wilson, 2003. "Wages in Rail Markets: Deregulation, Mergers, and Changing Networks Characteristics," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 69(4), pages 865-885, April.
    19. Levine, Ross & Rubinstein, Yona & Levkov, Alexey, 2014. "Bank Deregulation and Racial Inequality in America," Critical Finance Review, now publishers, vol. 3(1), pages 1-48, January.
    20. Timothy J. Richards & Zachariah Rutledge & Marcelo Castillo, 2024. "Labor shortages and agricultural trucking rates," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 72(2), pages 105-129, June.
    21. Barry T. Hirsch, 2008. "Wage Gaps Large and Small," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 74(4), pages 914-933, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bus; Deregulation; Discrimination; Female; Gender; Transportation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L92 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Railroads and Other Surface Transportation
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    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:eej:eeconj:v:26:y:2000:i:2:p:145-156. 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: Victor Matheson, College of the Holy Cross (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eeaa1ea.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.