Changes in Income Inequality within U.S. Metropolitan Areas

In studying MSA data that link the characteristics of metropolitan economies to significant changes in income inequality, Madden is able to study changes in poverty rates, household income inequality, and wage inequality within 182 of the largest MSAs and to identify what she says are the three factors most likely to influence changes in income inequality in metropolitan areas.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1060/thumbnail.jp

The Changing Spatial Concentration of Income and Poverty Among Suburbs of Large U.S. Metropolitan Areas

After developing a longitudinal database of civil divisions within 27 large metropolitan areas (MSAs) from the 1970 - 1990 U.S. Censuses, this study examines changes in the spatial concentration of income and poverty within these MSAs. A series of cross sectional analyses of geographic and social determinants of poverty rates and median household income are used to analyze whether the determinants are changing over time. Large, older central cities in the northeast and midwest have experienced increasing poverty and decreases in income relative to their own history and relative to their own suburbs. There is some evidence of economic decline in the inner suburbs of these central cities relative to other suburbs, but not relative to the central cities. The geographic shifts in MSA population among suburbs by income between 1970 and 1990 are analyzed relative to initial social characteristics of civil divisions. The study concludes that the filtering of older residential buildings to, and the lower marginal preference for land of, lower income groups contributes to the rising poverty rates and decreases in median household income for all central cities and for the inner suburbs of the northeastern and midwestern MSAs. The study finds little evidence that either "white flight" or the non-poor’s avoidance of taxes to support the poor are important factors in the shifts of population among suburbs.

The Distribution of Economic Losses among Displaced Workers: Measurement Methods Matter

This paper uses data on displaced workers from the January 1984 Displaced Worker Survey and data on a comparison group of "nondisplaced" workers constructed from the Current Population Survey to measure how worker characteristics affect the distribution of losses from displacement for workers displaced between January 1983 and January 1984. Displaced blue collar workers, industry changers, white women, and black men who are displaced incur the greater losses. Anomolous findings in previous studies are shown to be the result of failure to include a comparison group and to specify losses correctly.

Has the NFL's Rooney Rule Efforts “Leveled the Field” for African American Head Coach Candidates?

Madden provides evidence that African American head coaches in the National Football League (NFL) significantly outperformed whites between 1990 and 2002. She concludes that this evidence is consistent with African Americans being required to be better to be hired as head coaches. In 2002, the NFL promulgated the Rooney Rule requiring that NFL teams make various affirmative efforts when hiring coaches. This article finds that the performance advantage of African American head coaches has been eliminated since the Rooney Rule but finds no similar time trends in racial differentials in performance for other NFL coaching positions.defensive coordinator; discrimination; football; head coaches; NFL; offensive coordinator; Rooney Rule