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Working
Paper Series:
08.13
Speech Patterns and Racial Wage Inequality
Jeffrey Grogger
http://www.harrisschool.uchicago.edu/faculty/web-pages/jeffrey-grogger.asp
Abstract:
Speech patterns differ substantially between whites and African Americans. I collect and
analyze data on speech patterns to understand the role they may play in explaining racial
wage differences. Among blacks, speech patterns are highly correlated with measures of
skill such as schooling and ASVAB scores. They are also highly correlated with the
wages of young workers. Black speakers whose voices were distinctly identified as black
by anonymous listeners earn about 10 percent less than whites with similar observable
skills. Indistinctly identified blacks earn about 2 percent less than comparable whites. I
discuss a number of models that may be consistent with these results and describe the
data that one would need to distinguish among them. (Revised February 2009)
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