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Measurement Error in Human Capital and the Black-White Wage Gap

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  • Christopher R. Bollinger

    (University of Kentucky)

Abstract

Proxy variables are frequently used in economics to control for unavailable variables in a linear regression setting. For example, AFQT scores have been used to control for human capital accumulation in measuring black-white wage differentials. This practice may bias the coefficient estimates for the correctly measured variables as well. This paper models proxy variables as a measurement error process and derives bounds for the coefficients on the correctly measured variables under a variety of assumptions. The results show that the coefficient on race in a linear regression is an overstatement of the actual black-white wage gap. Sensitivity analysis suggests that if human capital could be correctly measured it would be unlikely that the coefficient on black would be negative. © 2003 President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher R. Bollinger, 2003. "Measurement Error in Human Capital and the Black-White Wage Gap," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(3), pages 578-585, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:85:y:2003:i:3:p:578-585
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    Cited by:

    1. Peter McHenry & Melissa McInerney, 2012. "Are Wage Premiums for Black Women Illusory? A Critical Examination," Working Papers 120, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary.
    2. Christopher R. Bollinger & Amitabh Chandra, 2005. "Iatrogenic Specification Error: A Cautionary Tale of Cleaning Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(2), pages 235-258, April.
    3. Eirini-Christina Saloniki & Amanda Gosling, 2012. "Point identification in the presence of measurement error in discrete variables: application - wages and disability," Studies in Economics 1214, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    4. Rita Pető & Balázs Reizer, 2021. "Gender differences in the skill content of jobs," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 825-864, July.
    5. Bělín, Matěj, 2020. "Time-invariant regressors under fixed effects: Simple identification via a proxy variable," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    6. Schofield, Lynne Steuerle, 2014. "Measurement error in the AFQT in the NLSY79," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 123(3), pages 262-265.
    7. Jonathan Fisher & Christina Houseworth, 2012. "The reverse wage gap among educated White and Black women," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(4), pages 449-470, December.
    8. Du, Shihan & Homrighausen, Pia & Wilke, Ralf A., 2018. "On omitted variables, proxies and unobserved effects in analysis of administrative labour market data," FDZ Methodenreport 201806_en, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    9. Chalak, Karim & Kim, Daniel & Miller, Megan & Pepper, John, 2022. "Reexamining the evidence on gun ownership and homicide using proxy measures of ownership," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    10. Jungmin Lee & Sokbae Lee, 2012. "Does it Matter WHO Responded to the Survey? Trends in the U.S. Gender Earnings Gap Revisited," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(1), pages 148-160, January.
    11. Naven, Matthew, 2020. "Within-School Heterogeneity in Quality: Do Schools Provide Equal Value Added to All Students?," MPRA Paper 100123, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. repec:iab:iabfme:201806(en is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Elyakim Kislev, 2017. "Deciphering the ‘Ethnic Penalty’ of Immigrants in Western Europe: A Cross-Classified Multilevel Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 134(2), pages 725-745, November.
    14. Chalak, Karim & Kim, Daniel, 2020. "Measurement error in multiple equations: Tobin’s q and corporate investment, saving, and debt," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 214(2), pages 413-432.
    15. Brian Junker & Lynne Schofield & Lowell Taylor, 2012. "The use of cognitive ability measures as explanatory variables in regression analysis," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-19, December.
    16. de New, Sonja C. & Schurer, Stefanie & Leung, Felix, 2015. "Testing the Validity of Item Non-Response as a Proxy for Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills," IZA Discussion Papers 8874, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Black Dan & Daniel Kermit & Smith Jeffrey, 2005. "College Quality and Wages in the United States," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 6(3), pages 415-443, August.
    18. Engzell, Per, 2017. "What Do Books in the Home Proxy For? A Cautionary Tale," Working Paper Series 1/2016, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    19. Nikolas Mittag, 2013. "A Method Of Correcting For Misreporting Applied To The Food Stamp Program," Working Papers 13-28, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    20. Aaron Chalfin & Justin McCrary, 2013. "The Effect of Police on Crime: New Evidence from U.S. Cities, 1960-2010," NBER Working Papers 18815, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Dan A. Black & Jeffrey A. Smith, 2006. "Estimating the Returns to College Quality with Multiple Proxies for Quality," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 701-728, July.
    22. Francis J. DiTraglia & Camilo Garcia-Jimeno, 2020. "A Framework for Eliciting, Incorporating, and Disciplining Identification Beliefs in Linear Models," Papers 2011.07276, arXiv.org.
    23. Chalak, Karim, 2024. "Nonparametric Gini-Frisch bounds," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 238(1).
    24. Zhang, Fan & Polyakov, Maksym & Fogarty, James & Pannell, David, 2016. "The Capitalized Value of Rainwater Tanks in the Property Market of Perth, Australia," Working Papers 246968, University of Western Australia, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

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