Law and Economics Workshop hosts Dr. Tali Regev

Abstract: 

Are Black workers discriminated against in the labor market? Studies based on survey data have found a correlation between being Black and employment outcomes, such as hiring and

salaries. Other, related studies suggest that a within-race darker skin tone is also associated with labor force disadvantages. However, it is hard to refute the possibility that other factors correlated

with skin color might affect the employment outcomes for people with darker skin tone. In order to overcome this inherent limitation, we use a natural experiment to explore the effects of skin tone

on employment—we use a within-person research design on data from the NLSY97 longitudinal data-set and utilize changes in one’s own skin tone generated by exposure to the sun, to explore the

effects of skin tone on the tendency to be hired and fired. We use the average UV radiation in one’s metropolitan area in a given week as an exogenous variable generating a darker skin tone for some

people (those with medium, moderate brown, and dark brown skin) but not for others (those with white, pale white, and very dark brown to dark skin). We find that indeed, those people whose skin

tone becomes darker by exposure to the sun (but not others) are less likely to be employed when the UV radiation in the previous four weeks in the area in which they reside is greater. These within person

findings hold even when controlling for the week, the year, the region, demographic characteristics and the industry one is employed in. A separate analysis for women and men reveals that it is the effect of UV radiation on men’s employment, but not on women’s, that drive the results we present.