AFRC112 - DISCRIMINATION

This course is concerned with the structure, the causes and correlates, and the government policies to alleviate discrimination by race and gender in the United States. The central focus of the course is on employment differences by race and gender and the extent to which they arise from labor market discrimination versus other causes, although racial discrimination in housing is also considered. After a comprehensive overview of the structures of labor and housing markets and of nondiscriminatory reasons (that is, the cumulative effects of past discrimination and/or experiences) for the existence of group differentials in employment, wages and residential locations, various theories of the sources of current discrimination are reviewed and evaluated. Actual government policies and alternatives policies are evaluated in light of both the empirical evidence on group differences and the alternative theories of discrimination.