Black Unemployment and Infotainment

Abstract

"Why has the black unemployment rate in the United States been more than twice that of whites over the past three decades? This article builds on earlier efforts to explain this conundrum using a discrimination framework, but it refocuses the explanation onto indirect cultural factors that motivate discriminatory behavior. Consistent with a call for using social phenomena to explain economic outcomes, the article reveals that "infotainment" (information and entertainment) contributes to increases in the black-white unemployment rate gap and to higher black unemployment". ("JEL "J164, J71, Z10) Copyright (c) 2008 Western Economic Association International.