TY - JOUR T1 - The Importance of Cost of Living and Education in Estimates of the Conditional Wage Gap Between Black and White Women JF - Journal of Human Resources JO - J Hum Resour SP - 695 LP - 722 DO - 10.3368/jhr.49.3.695 VL - 49 IS - 3 AU - Peter McHenry AU - Melissa McInerney Y1 - 2014/07/01 UR - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/49/3/695.abstract N2 - While evidence about discrimination in U.S. labor markets typically implies preferential treatment for whites, recent studies document a substantial wage premium for black women (for example, Fryer 2011). Although differential selection of black and white women into the labor market has been a suggested explanation, we demonstrate that accounting for selection does not eliminate the estimated premium. We then incorporate two additional omitted variables recently documented in the literature: (1) local cost of living and (2) years of education attained, conditional on AFQT score. After controlling for these variables, we find no evidence of a wage premium for black women. ER -