Data and Code for: Civil Rights Enforcement and the Racial Wage Gap

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Jose J. Lopez, University of Memphis; Jamein P. Cunningham, University of Memphis

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
README.pdf	application/pdf	85.5 KB	04/26/2021 07:40:AM
aeapp_table_1.do	text/plain	551 bytes	04/26/2021 07:40:AM
aeapp_table_2.do	text/plain	2 KB	04/26/2021 07:40:AM
court_standards_judges_1979-2019_court-year.dta	application/x-stata-dta	384.6 KB	04/26/2021 07:40:AM
cr7_wage_by_race.dta	application/x-stata-dta	107.6 MB	04/26/2021 07:40:AM

Project Citation:

Lopez, Jose J., and Cunningham, Jamein P. Data and Code for: Civil Rights Enforcement and the Racial Wage Gap. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2021. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-05-13. https://doi.org/10.3886/E138924V1

Project Description

Summary: We present new evidence on three measures of civil rights enforcement--litigation, judge dismissal, and plaintiff win rates--across United States district courts from 1979 to 2016. Across courts, higher shares of Republican judges are associated with higher dismissal rates, regardless of court composition in terms of gender and race. Further, we find that states with higher litigation rates also exhibit higher racial wage gaps, whereas states where judge dismissal (plaintiff win) rates are higher experience higher (lower) racial wage gaps. Our results highlight the importance of legal institutions on the persistence of racial inequality.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: civil rights; inequality; racial discrimination; racial wage gap

JEL Classification:
      J70 Labor Discrimination: General
      J71 Labor Discrimination
      J78 Labor Discrimination: Public Policy
      K00 Law and Economics: General
      K31 Labor Law

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Published Versions

V1 [2021-05-13]

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