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Author: Spriggs, William E.
Resulting in 4 citations.
1. Rodgers, William M., III
Spriggs, William E.
Accounting for the Racial Gap in AFQT scores: Comment on Nan L. Maxwell, "The Effect on Black-White Wage Differences of Differences in the Quantity and Quality of Education"
Industrial and Labor Relations Review 55,3 (April 2002): 533-541.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2696055
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Discrimination; Discrimination, Racial/Ethnic; Human Capital; Racial Differences; Skills; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT; Wage Equations; Wage Gap

The authors comment on the black-white wage gap, concentrating on recent studies that have attempted to explain the wage gap by focusing on racial differences in skills that are not fully captured by standard human capital measures. Scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT), which was administered to respondents in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), are used to proxy for these skills. Studies by Neal and Johnson (1996) and Rodgers and Spriggs (1996) are discussed, with particular focus on Nan L. Maxwell's paper, 'The Effect on Black-White Wage Differences of Differences in the Quantity and Quality of Education,' published in 1994 edition of this journal.

What explains the black-white wage gap? This has been and continues to be an active area of research by social scientists. In their quest to explain the large and persistent wage gap, recent studies have focused on racial differences in skills that are not fully captured by standard human capital measures. Scores on the Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT), which was administered to respondents in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), are used to proxy for these skills. A variety of studies have shown that when the AFQT score is placed in a standard human capital wage equation, the education and standard human capital characteristics explain approximately one-half of the black-white wage gap. AFQT difference explain the remained of the gap, although Neal and Johnson (1996) argued that AFQT explains the entire gap. The key interpretation given to this result is that pre-labor market discrimination can explain the large and persistent wage gap. That arguments would be very convincing is the racial different in test scores could be explained by racial differences in the factors likely to increase skill attainment, and those factors could be linked to pre-labor market discrimination.

Bibliography Citation
Rodgers, William M., III and William E. Spriggs. "Accounting for the Racial Gap in AFQT scores: Comment on Nan L. Maxwell, "The Effect on Black-White Wage Differences of Differences in the Quantity and Quality of Education"." Industrial and Labor Relations Review 55,3 (April 2002): 533-541.
2. Rodgers, William M., III
Spriggs, William E.
What Does the AFQT Really Measure: Race, Wages, Schooling and the AFQT Score
The Review of Black Political Economy 24,4 (Spring 1996): 13-46.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/52t6v2n352q01807/
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: National Economic Association
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Discrimination, Job; Family Background and Culture; Family Environment; Job Skills; Racial Differences; School Quality; Schooling; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT; Wage Gap

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Recent literature on the black-white wage gap continues to show that a large residual due to race remains, and during the 1980s, it grew in size. One interpretation is that the residual gap measures the existence of labor market discrimination. Another interpretation is that imbedded in the residual gap are racial differences in unobservable skills that grew during the 1980s, or that racial differences in these skills remained constant, but their returns grew. To account for these unobservable skills, researchers switch to the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). The NLSY contains the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT), a direct measure of skills obtained via family and school environments.When researchers include the AFQT composite score, the black-white wage gap narrows. Doing this, they assume that the AFQT score is a racially unbiased predictor of wages. We present evidence that generates doubt that the AFQT score is racially unbiased. We first show t hat F-Tests reject the hypothesis that AFQT scores equally predict African American and white wages. Further, when the components of the AFQT are used to predict wages, instead of the composite score, the coefficients on the verbal components are positive and significant for African Americans, while the coefficient on the math component is basically zero. The relationships for whites are exactly the opposites. Second, we show that a significant difference in the ability of family background, school quality, and a set of psychological characteristics to estimate black and white test scores exists. Third, we present our estimates of the black-white wage gap where a racially unbiased AFQT composite score has been used to control for racial differences in job skills. To construct this score, we estimate a regression of the AFQT scores of whites on an exhaustive list of family background, school quality, and individual psychological characteristics. When the two-step estimated score is used, it reduces the mean square error of the wage regression, has a significant independent effect on wages, and a very small effect on the race coefficient.
Bibliography Citation
Rodgers, William M., III and William E. Spriggs. "What Does the AFQT Really Measure: Race, Wages, Schooling and the AFQT Score." The Review of Black Political Economy 24,4 (Spring 1996): 13-46.
3. Rodgers, William M., III
Spriggs, William E.
Klein, Bruce W.
Do the Skills of Adults Employed in Minimum Wage Contour Jobs Explain Why They Get Paid Less?
Working Paper, College of William & Mary and US Dept of Labor, March 1997
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Author
Keyword(s): Discrimination, Job; Job Skills; Minimum Wage; Monopsony Employers; Wage Differentials; Wage Gap

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we compare the pay of workers employed on the minimum wage contour defined by Spriggs and Klein (1994) to the pay of similar workers in other jobs. We also examine whether the minimum wage increases in 1990 and 1991 change the wage gap's size. Our findings suggest that workers on the minimum wage contour are paid less than similarly qualified workers, and that the minimum wage increases helped to narrow some of this differential. This is consistent with Dickens, et.al. (1994) who theorize that low-wage firms have monopsony-like power in setting wages.
Bibliography Citation
Rodgers, William M., III, William E. Spriggs and Bruce W. Klein. "Do the Skills of Adults Employed in Minimum Wage Contour Jobs Explain Why They Get Paid Less?" Working Paper, College of William & Mary and US Dept of Labor, March 1997.
4. Rodgers, William M., III
Spriggs, William E.
Klein, Bruce W.
Do the Skills of Adults Employed in Minimum Wage Contour Jobs Explain Why They Get Paid Less?
Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 27,1 (Fall 2004): 38-66.
Also: http://econpapers.repec.org/article/mespostke/v_3a27_3ay_3a2004_3ai_3a1_3ap_3a38-66.htm
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
Keyword(s): Human Capital; Job Tenure; Minimum Wage; Occupational Choice; Schooling; Training, Occupational; Training, On-the-Job; Wage Differentials; Wage Gap; Wage Levels

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we compare the pay of workers employed on the minimum wage contour to the pay of similar workers in other jobs. We also examine whether the minimum wage increases of 1990 and 1991 narrow the pay gap. We find that characteristics of minimum wage contour workers explain most of their relative pay disadvantage; however, from 1986 to 1990, a residual wage gap of 5.0 to 5.8 percent emerged. The increases in the minimum wage help to slow the gap's widening.
Bibliography Citation
Rodgers, William M., III, William E. Spriggs and Bruce W. Klein. "Do the Skills of Adults Employed in Minimum Wage Contour Jobs Explain Why They Get Paid Less?" Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 27,1 (Fall 2004): 38-66.