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Tasks and Black-white Inequality over the Long Twentieth Century

Author

Listed:
  • Rowena Gray
  • Siobhan M. O'Keefe
  • Sarah Quincy
  • Zachary Ward

Abstract

We present new evidence on the long-run trend of occupational task content by race in the United States, 1900-2021. Black workers began the transition to better paid, cognitive-intensive modern jobs at least a generation after white workers; substantial convergence only occurred from 1960 onwards. Longitudinal data suggests that transitions to new task content were racially biased: Black men moved to jobs with lower rewarded task content than white men, conditional on initial task content, though gaps decreased after World War II. Routine-intensive Black workers were less likely to move up into non-routine analytic work compared to white workers in both historical and modern periods. The results suggest that task-displacement shocks, such as automating routine-manual work, widen Black-white inequality

Suggested Citation

  • Rowena Gray & Siobhan M. O'Keefe & Sarah Quincy & Zachary Ward, 2024. "Tasks and Black-white Inequality over the Long Twentieth Century," NBER Working Papers 32545, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32545
    Note: CH DAE LS
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • N31 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • N32 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-

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