The Impact of Ford Motor Company’s Voluntary Equal Wage Policy on Detroit’s Wage Gap in the 1940s
利用人口普查和福特公司记录，通过倾向得分加权和搜索模型模拟，发现福特平等工资政策可能使密歇根东南部工资差距缩小高达50%。
We analyze the impact of Ford Motor Company’s compensation practices on the Detroit-area labor market from 1918 to 1947. Previous studies imply that Ford paid race-independent wages, but its Black workers were sorted into undesirable departments. We extend these results using propensity score reweighting of census data and Ford’s records and confirm that Ford paid equal wages. We then develop a search model with discriminatory and equal wage firms to assess the impact of Ford’s policy on the larger labor market. Calibrated simulations suggest that Ford may have reduced the wage gap in southeastern Michigan by as much as 50%.