Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/62463 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6605
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Nearly half of U.S. employers test job applicants and workers for drugs. I use variation in the timing and nature of drug testing regulation to study discrimination against blacks related to perceived drug use. Black employment in the testing sector is suppressed in the absence of testing, consistent with ex ante discrimination on the basis of drug use perceptions. Adoption of pro-testing legislation increases black employment in the testing sector by 7-30% and relative wages by 1.4-13.0%, with the largest shifts among low skilled black men. Results suggest that employers substitute white women for blacks in the absence of testing.
Subjects: 
employer drug testing
discrimination
black employment
labor market outcome disparities
JEL: 
J7
J15
K2
K3
M5
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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