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Title: 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"
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Rodgers, William M., III Spriggs, William E. |
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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. |
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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.
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