DOES SCHOOL QUALITY EXPLAIN THE RECENT BLACK-WHITE WAGE TREND

Around 1980, the trend toward racial wage convergence essentially stop ped. I ask whether this break in the convergence trend can be explaine d by school quality. Department of Education surveys provide earnings data for the high school Class of 1972 in 1979 and the Class of 1980 i n 1986, both linked to data from the respondents' high schools. By sev eral measures, differences between schools attended by blacks and whit es were already rather small in the 1970s. Furthermore, I find that me asurable school inputs generally have little effect on wages. Thus sch ool quality explains little of the recent black/white wage trend.