A NOTE ON THE RELATIVE EARNINGS OF CENTRAL CITY BLACK MALES.

The article examines the determinants of inter-urban differences in the relative earnings of black male workers in the U.S. The finding that blacks do not have restricted access to suburban jobs suggests that the categorizations which are employed in many research designs, central city versus suburban place of work and residence are insufficiently precise to capture the impacts of commuting costs and other variables on the choices of workers. The findings that the relative earnings of blacks are higher in cities with proportionately more manufacturing jobs and in cities with proportionately higher percentages of unionized jobs are of critical importance for further research. The finding regarding the impact of unionization has important implications for the study of the impact of growing governmental employment and municipal unions on relative earnings.