Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/130345 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9662
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper investigates, theoretically and empirically, differences between blacks and whites in the U.S. concerning the intergenerational transmission of occupational skills and the effects on sons' earnings. The father-son skill correlation is measured by the correlation coefficient (or cosine of the angle) between the father's skill vector and the son's skill vector. The skill vector comprises an individual's occupational characteristics from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). According to data from the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), white sons earn higher wages in occupations that require skills similar to those of their fathers, whereas black sons in such circumstances incur a wage loss. A large portion of the racial wage gap is explained by the father-son skill correlation. However, a significant unexplained racial wage gap remains at the lower tail of the wage distribution.
Subjects: 
multidimensional skills
intergenerational transmission
occupational characteristics
black-white differences
JEL: 
J62
J24
J15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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