Black-White Gap in Self-Employment in the U.S.: Do Cohort and within Race Differences Exist?

24 Pages Posted: 26 Jul 2010

See all articles by Ruth Uwaifo Oyelere

Ruth Uwaifo Oyelere

Agnes Scott College; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Willie J. Belton

Georgia Institute of Technology - School of Economics

Abstract

In this paper we ask three questions: First, is there evidence of a Black-White gap in self-employment between 1994-2002 and could the inclusion of the White immigrant population be driving this result? Second, do within race differences in self-employment exist among the U.S. born? Finally, do cohort differences in the Black-White self-employment gap exist among the U.S. born? These questions are based on some of the regression findings in our earlier paper focused on the role of information and institutions in understanding the Black-White gap in self-employment. We find that the Black-White self-employment gap is not driven by the existence of White immigrants in the data set. In addition, we find that within race and cohort differences exist in the Black-White self-employment gap. A subgroup of U.S. born African-Americans have a self-employment probability that is identical to that of U.S. born White-Americans. In addition, younger cohorts of African-Americans have a much smaller self-employment gap than do older African-Americans.

Keywords: self-employment, disparities, black-white gap

JEL Classification: J10, J11, J15, L26

Suggested Citation

Uwaifo Oyelere, Ruth and Belton, Willie J., Black-White Gap in Self-Employment in the U.S.: Do Cohort and within Race Differences Exist?. IZA Discussion Paper No. 5071, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1648356 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1648356

Ruth Uwaifo Oyelere (Contact Author)

Agnes Scott College ( email )

141 E. College Ave
Decatur, GA 30030
United States

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Willie J. Belton

Georgia Institute of Technology - School of Economics ( email )

217 Habersham
Atlanta, GA 30332
United States

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