NOVAFRICA Seminar: Prashant Bharadwaj, University of California, San Diego

What drives wage disparities across social groups? Can we disentangle statistical discrimination from structural wage differences?

In our next NOVAFRICA Seminar on Wednesday, April 9, at 3:30 PM (Lisbon time) in Room D-106 at Nova School of Business and Economics, Carcavelos campus, we are pleased to host Professor Prashant Bharadwaj from the University of California, San Diego, to present his paper:

“Statistical Discrimination and the Distribution of Wages.”

Abstract

We characterize the conditions under which the wage distributions for two groups are consistent with a general model of statistical discrimination. We adapt this theoretical framework to develop a novel empirical test—the rejection of which we interpret as evidence of taste-based discrimination. This provides a theoretical foundation for interpreting the wage structure effect in wage decomposition as an indicator of taste-based discrimination. We apply this approach using Census and NLSY-79 data and find evidence of taste-based discrimination against Black male workers in several broad occupational categories.

Find out more about this and other NOVAFRICA seminars here .

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