TY  - JOUR
AU  - Collins,William J.
TI  - The Political Economy of Race, 1940-1964: The Adoption of State-Level Fair Employment Legislation
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Historical Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 128
PY  - 2000
Y2  - June 2000
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/h0128
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/h0128.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
William J. Collins
Department of Economics
Vanderbilt University
VU Station B #351819
2301 Vanderbilt Place
Nashville, TN 37235-1819
Tel: 615/322-3428
Fax: NA
E-Mail: william.collins@vanderbilt.edu
AB  - This paper traces the diffusion of fair employment legislation at the state level and evaluates the relative importance of various demographic, political, and economic factors in the promotion (or at least the acceptance) of the principle of government-enforced anti-discrimination policy.  The empirics indicate that non-southern states with higher proportions of union members, Jews, and Catholics tended to adopt fair employment legislation sooner than other states.  There is weaker evidence that after controlling for other characteristics, the likelihood of passage was lower in states dominated by the Republican Party and that there were spillover or contagion effects across states.  The proportion of the population that was black does not appear to have shortened the time to adoption.
ER  -