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The Impact of Employment Discrimination Litigation on Racial Disparity in Earnings: Evidence and Unresolved Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Paul Burstein  and
Mark Evan Edwards
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Abstract

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What is the relationship between employment discrimination litigation and the relative earnings of blacks and whites in the United States? Do victories in court affect blacks' relative earnings? Are gains in earnings associated with legal victories enduring or temporary? Can litigation be an effective tactic in efforts at social reform? Data on plaintiff victories in employment discrimination cases decided by U.S. appellate courts from 1965 through 1985 show that victories are associated with significant and enduring increases in blacks' relative earnings. One implication is that at least in this area, the courts may bring about social reform.

Type
Civil Rights Laws and Minority Wage Differentials
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , 1994 , pp. 79 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by The Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

We would like to thank George Bridges, Lauren Edelman, Kevin Esterling, and George Farkas for helpful advice and comments. Earlier versions of this article were presented at the American Politics Workshop, University of Chicago, November 1991, and the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, August 1992. Data collection was made possible by grants from the National Science Foundation (SES-8509055) and the Vanderbilt University Research Council. The coding scheme was developed with the assistance of Peter Harris and Jan Grigsby.

References

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