Omer R. Galle

Racial Mix and Industrial Productivity

The relationship between the racial composition of the work force in an industrial category and that industrys level of productivity is explored. The logic of the major theories of labor-force behavior implies that a large minority labor-force presence will be negatively correlated with an industrys level of productivity because of the relatively weak attachment to the work force of such groups as blacks and women. After exploring information about the manufacturing industries in the United States in the early 1960s and early 1970s, we find no evidence to support this implication. If anything, an industrial categorys level of productivity is positively related to the percent black in that industrys labor force, once other relevant characteristics are controlled. These preliminary findings deserve further theoretical and empirical specification.

Migration and metropolitan opportunity structures: A demographic response to racial inequality

Abstract This paper examines the impact of racial inequality on black and white migration rates for a sample of metropolitan areas in the United States 1975–1980. A conceptual framework for migration that includes a measure of racial inequality is developed and evaluated. The results indicate that blacks are attracted to areas with lower levels of inequality, but contrary to our expectations, the rate of black out-migration is lower in Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas with higher levels of racial inequality. In addition, whites seem to be attracted to labor markets where whites have the greatest advantage as measured by occupational inequality, and they are more likely to leave areas where the competition with blacks for jobs is greater. Implications for theory and further research for the comparative study of black and white migration are outlined.

The retrospective construction of metropolitan areas for longitudinal analysis: An application to racial occupational inequality☆

Abstract We analyze a theoretical model of racial occupational inequality using alternative boundary definitions for southern metropolitan areas. These include both “fixed” and “decade-specific” metropolitan boundary definitions. The findings show remarkable consistency among the statistical results across the two types of definitions. Our analysis suggests that defining Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas according to a specified time point and moving back in time can yield important benefits to the researcher, including larger sample sizes with increased statistical power. Implications for future research are discussed.

Crowding and Behavior in Chicago, 1940–1970

That high levels of population density or overcrowding may have severe and negative consequences for human populations appears to be a recurrently intriguing and controversial idea. Although this argument may be found in serious journals of more than 100 years ago (Verhulst, 1845), recently revived interest in the density-behavior equation has been spurred at least, in part, by research on other animal populations such as lemmings, elephants, monkeys, and rats (Calhoun, 1962a) (for a review of the literature on the effect of density on animals see Galle & Gove, 1978). Research on human populations, however, remains fairly sparse and subject to widely varying interpretations (for recent reviews of this literature, see Galle and Gove, 1978; Fischer, Baldassare, & Ofshe, 1975; Carnahan, Gove, & Galle, 1974; Freedman, 1975; Altman, 1975). An earlier article by the present authors (Galle, Gove, & McPherson, 1972) has partly contributed to this continuing controversy. This chapter will attempt to extend the discussion of the question of the relationship between crowding and behavior in human population in two ways. First, after a brief restatement and clarification of the findings reported in our earlier Science article, we try to answer some questions that have been raised about that earlier analysis. Second, we examine the consis- tency of the findings reported there for Chicago by extending the 1960 analysis to three other time periods, 1940, 1950, and 1970.

Rethinking measures of migration: On the decomposition of net migration

The purpose of this paper is to “resurrect” the measure of net migration and defend its continued use under specific research circumstances, despite the current dissatisfaction with the measure as expressed by some scholars. We employ data from the 1980 Census of Population to compare five measures of migration, including net migration rates, in- and out-migration rates, migration efficiency ratios and migration turnover rates. We demonstrate the additivity of in- and out-migration rates with net migration rates and migration turnover rates. Also, we show how the migration efficiency ratio and turnover rates are conceptually and mathematically related. Finally, a simple multivariate model is estimated to show how regression coefficients from in-and out-migration rate models are related to net migration and migration turnover rates.

Race, sex, and economic returns to education

Abstract This paper reviews the prevailing theories accounting for the pronounced differentials in economic attainment by race and sex, giving particular attention to the role of race and sex differences in educational attainments in explaining these differentials. It finds that discrimination in the labor market continues to be a major factor in generating race and sex differentials in economic attainment, and argues that continued government intervention in the labor market is necessary to insure equality of economic opportunity for blacks and women. A redoubling of government efforts in this area is urged since the early 1980s, like the late 1970s, looks to be a period where further economic advances by blacks and women will be difficult to achieve.