Rg. Gregory et al., THE INDIVIDUAL ECONOMIC WELL-BEING OF NATIVE-AMERICAN MEN AND WOMEN DURING THE 1980S - A DECADE OF MOVING BACKWARDS, Population research and policy review, 16(1-2), 1997, pp. 115-145
The study examines whether the income opportunities of Native American
s over the 1980s improved in response to stronger aggregate job growth
or deteriorated in response to declining wage and employment opportun
ities, particularly for the less-skilled. Using data from the 1980 and
1990 US Census on individuals aged 16-64, a methodology is presented
to analyze the effect of changes in the income distributions of Native
Americans and whites on the average Native American-white income rati
o. Oaxaca-type decompositions are also used to yield insights into the
role of economy-wide as opposed to Native American-specific effects o
n changes in income, hourly earnings and annual hours employed over th
e period. The study concludes that the economic circumstances of Nativ
e American men and women further deteriorated relative to whites over
the decade, chiefly due to the declining valuation given to Native Ame
rican human capital, particularly for men. An important finding of the
study is the role of economy-wide vis-a-vis native-specific effects:
almost all of the adverse movements in average hourly earnings against
Native Americans can be attributed to changes in economy-wide hourly
earnings structures (with the least-skilled being paid less), whereas
the large fall in relative annual hours is due to changes specific to
Native Americans.