Trucking Deregulation and the Black/White Wage Gap

Abstract

The only previous study of the effect of product market deregulation on the black/white wage gap found that this gap in the trucking industry declined after trucking deregulation in 1978. That study did not, however, estimate the separate effects of deregulation on union and nonunion members or on black and white drivers. This study does so through an analysis of individual worker information from the March and May CPS files for the years 1973 through 1988. The authors find that deregulation is associated with significantly declining black/white wage gaps among both union and nonunion drivers. This wage pattern is attributable to significant reductions in the real wages of white drivers; the real wages of black drivers did not change with deregulation.