The Outcomes of Policies Designed to Eliminate Discrimination

Abstract

My dissertation offers three empirical studies of the outcomes following public policy changes designed to reduce the impact of discrimination. The first two chapters focus on the migration of black South Africans soon after the notorious apartheid policies of the South African government were eliminated in the early 1990s. The last chapter of my thesis touches another anti-discrimination policy, the American with Disabilities Act of 1990.Chapter 1 investigates the impact of internal migration on the human capital redistribution within South Africa. As apartheid was being dismantled, new opportunities for movement opened up to black workers, leading to a surge in internal migration. The empirical analysis shows that individuals prefer localities with higher expected log wages regardless of their educations and skills. Second, over the study period, brain drain arose among blacks within South Africa: the share of people with high school education rose in areas that had originally had more people with high school educations.Chapter 2 studies the impact of family migration on women's employment status in South Africa as apartheid was being dismantled. Black women in migrating households with both spouses were more likely to be unemployed than in nonmigrant households. Moreover, the initial negative relationship between migration and employment in a new area for white spouses of migrants was eliminated within 2 years, while black spouses of migrants experienced higher levels of unemployment relative to nonmigrants over a more extended period.Chapter 3 examines the changes in the Oaxaca decomposition measures of labor market discrimination for individuals with disabilities before and after the passage of the ADA. The results indicate that the employment and wage gaps between the disabled and the non-disabled have risen sharply over time, both before and after the passage of the ADA. Most of the rise prior to the ADA was attributable to a rise in differences that cannot be explained with measurable factors. Nearly all of the rises in the gaps after the introduction of the ADA, however, are attributable to factors that can be measured. The unexplained differential has held relatively constant during that period.