Black/White Differences in Job Shift Behavior: A Dynamic Analysis

This study investigates one mechanism through which black/white differences in returns to resources occur through time—job shifts. The results show that whites change jobs more often than blacks, move upward more often than blacks, and compete for higher levels of rewards more often than blacks. Whites are more likely to move within firms and across firms than blacks. However, the results show that whites do not always receive greater returns to resources as determinants of job shifts. Whites do receive greater returns to education in interfirm shifts in prestige than blacks. However, blacks receive equal or greater returns to education and firm-specific resources in intrafirm shifts in prestige and wage than whites.