University of Wisconsin - Madison Institute for Researchon Poverty

This paper investigates one mechanism through which black/white differences in returns to resources occur through time--job shifts. The results show that whites receive greater returns to education in interfirm shifts in prestige than blacks. Blacks receive equal or greater returns to education and firm-specific resources in intrafirm shifts in prestige and wage than whites. Black/White Differences in Job Shift Behavior: A Dynamic Analysis Past research has shown that there are substantial differences in the levels of income and prestige achieved by blacks and whites in the United States (Blau and Duncan, 1967; Duncan, 1969; Farley, 1977; Featherman and Hauser, 1976; Jencks et al., 1972; Masters, 1975; Siegel, 1965; Thurow, 1969). Recent evidence indicates that racial differences may be declining in size and significance (see, for example, Farley, 1977; Wilson, 1978), though there is considerable controversy over this issue. Many researchers agree with Duncan that "Negroes (that is, disproportionate numbers of them) are poor mainly because they are 'Negroes' and are defined and treated as such by our society" (p. 87). Some students of black/white differences have attempted to deal with the factors that create and maintain these racial differences (Blau and Duncan, 1967; Blum, 1972; Coleman et al., 1972 a, b; Featherman and Hauser, 1976; Kluegel, 1975; Portes and Wilson, 1976; Snyder and Hudis, 1976; Hauser and Featherman, 1974). This research has contributed to our knowledge by examining ways in which being defined and treated as black serves as a liability. The results demonstrate two kinds of black disadvantages. First, blacks begin the life cycle and enter the labor force with "characteristics that would be a disadvantage to anyone ••• subsequent favorable events cannot be capitalized on as readily" (Duncan, p. 88). Second, blacks and whites "in the same line of work, with the same amount of formal schooling, with equal ability, from families of the same size and same socioeco-