RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Permanent Income and the Black-White Test Score Gap
JF Journal of Human Resources
JO J Hum Resour
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 510
OP 544
DO 10.3368/jhr.48.3.510
VO 48
IS 3
A1 Jesse Rothstein
A1 Nathan Wozny
YR 2013
UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/48/3/510.abstract
AB Analysts often examine the black-white test score gap conditional on current family income. We describe a method for identifying the gap conditional on the family’s permanent income. Current income explains only about half as much of the black-white test gap as does permanent income, and the gap among families with the same permanent income is only 0.2 to 0.3 standard deviations in two commonly used samples. When we add permanent income to the controls used by Fryer and Levitt (2006), the unexplained gap in third grade shrinks below 0.15 SDs, less than half of what is found with their controls.