Little research has assessed the impacts of forced school desegregation on individuals’ ideological views, social preferences, or racial attitudes. Political economist Jörg Spenkuch and his colleagues will collect and analyze data on thousands of students who participated in a natural experiment in Louisville, KY, when a federal court ordered that the Louisville and Jefferson County public school systems be merged and desegregated in 1974.
Fatal police brutality has been a major concern among African American communities at least since the 1920s. Economist Brendan O’Flaherty and his colleagues will examine the disparate impact in the use of lethal police force both across racial and ethnic groups and across cities. The investigators hypothesize that, in considering police reforms, it is better to examine results rather than motives, to observe police departments rather than individual officers, and to focus on police homicide victims rather than perpetrators.
As of 2020, ten states had enacted legislation banning race-based affirmative action in public universities. Beyond a direct effect on college admissions, these bans may have unintended consequences. For example, they may alter citizens’ views on redistribution and racial relations, and attitudes on other topics.
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted employers to greatly expand remote work. In May 2020, among those commuting to work before the pandemic, 35.2 percent were working remotely. To what extent has this changed worker preferences for workplace flexibility and its adoption by employers? Using surveys and experiments, economist Patricia Cortés and her research team will study whether and how the pandemic is changing worker preferences for workplace flexibility, as well as the longer-term effects of changes in workplaces and work arrangements.
One way the criminal justice system contributes to systemic racial inequality is by reducing the civic engagement of people with prior criminal justice convictions, particularly for Blacks and Latinx who are more likely to have criminal records. Many individuals with prior felony convictions are formally excluded from voting, but even those who are eligible to vote have very low rates of voter registration and voting.
The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing recession exacerbated economic vulnerabilities in part because the most advantaged workers retained jobs while the least advantaged faced declining employment prospects and financial insecurity. Although the 2020 CARES Act expanded eligibility for Unemployment Insurance (UI) and provided an additional $600 per week for recipients, workers experienced variation in UI receipt due to differences in state UI benefit levels, the efficiency of bureaucratic systems, and time-to-receipt of payments.
Co-funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York
In the U.S. criminal justice system, Black Americans are more likely to be arrested and spend time in prison than others. However, the literature on policing and the criminal justice system emphasizes the behavior of individuals (e.g., racially biased police officers, probation officers or judges who are responsible for disparities in arrests, parole decisions or sentencing), rather than the effects of criminal justice policies (i.e., the rules that jurisdictions use to implement the law).
The killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020 sparked mass demonstrations against police violence and racism across the country. While racial violence and racist ideology are associated with the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow in the South, such violence is pervasive outside the South as well. Protesters across the country were motivated to join demonstrations against systemic racism in their communities.