DEVAH PAGER Department of Sociology Princeton University 157 Wallace Hall Princeton, NJ 08544 T: 609-258-8725 F: 609-258-2180 pager@princeton.edu princeton.edu/~pager |
HAVE WE CONQUERED DISCRIMINATION?
Is discrimination, as one prominent economist proclaimed, merely “the problem of an earlier era?” Only a third of white Americans today believe that discrimination is an important explanation for why blacks do worse in income, housing, and jobs. Large-scale field experiments show otherwise. I investigate discrimination in low wage labor markets by hiring young men – who differ only by race, ethnicity, or criminal background - to pose as job applicants, presenting identical qualifications to employers for real entry level jobs. My work shows substantial evidence of discrimination, with black men receiving call-backs or job offers at only half the rate of equally qualified whites. In fact, a young black man with a clean record does no better in his search for low wage work than a white man with a felony conviction. In a second line of research, I investigate the barriers to employment facing young men with criminal backgrounds. I find that ex-offenders are only one half to one third as likely to be considered by employers relative to equally qualified men with no criminal background. These findings have troubling implications: With over two million individuals currently incarcerated, and over half a million being released each year, the consequences for new forms of labor market inequalities are potentially profound. CURRICULUM VITA (pdf) SELECTED PUBLICATIONS: Pager, Devah and Lincoln Quillian. 2005. “Walking the Talk: What Employers Do Versus What They Say.” American Sociological Review 7(3):355-380. Pager, Devah. 2005. “Double Jeopardy: Race, Crime, and Getting a Job.” Wisconsin Law Review (2):617-660. Pager, Devah. 2003. “The Mark of a Criminal Record.” American Journal of Sociology 108(5):937-975. Grodsky, Eric and Devah Pager. 2001. “The Structure of Disadvantage: Individual and Occupational Determinants of the Black-White Wage Gap.” American Sociological Review: 66(4):542-567. Quillian, Lincoln and Devah Pager. 2001. “Black Neighbors, Higher Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes in Evaluations of Neighborhood Crime.” American Journal of Sociology: 107(3): 717-767. |
