Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2019
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Industrial Change, the Boundary of the Firm, and Racial Employment Segregation

By: John-Paul Ferguson and Rembrand Koning
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:37
ShareBar

Abstract

Racial employment segregation between large workplaces in America has grown over the last generation. We know little about how changes in patterns of employment by economic sector have contributed to this growth, though. While there are many stylized narratives about how industrial change may have affected employment segregation, there are fewer testable predictions or ways to reconcile those narratives. We argue that Theil's information statistic provides a way to compare changes within and between industries or other sub-groups in a common framework. Changes in Theil's H can be decomposed into changes in relative size, relative diversity, and relative segregation, which are precisely the mechanisms on which most stylized narratives rely. We explain permutation-test methods for summarizing changes in these factors across six major economic sectors over time. We test these methods using four decades of longitudinal data on establishment workforce composition from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Keywords

Workplace Segregation; Firm Boundaries; Organizations; Employees; Segmentation; Race; Change; United States

Citation

Ferguson, John-Paul, and Rembrand Koning. "Industrial Change, the Boundary of the Firm, and Racial Employment Segregation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-069, December 2019.
  • Read Now

About The Author

Rembrand M. Koning

Strategy
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Events, Knowledge Spillovers, and Entrepreneur Performance in Togo

    By: Stefan Dimitiadis and Rembrand Koning
    • December 2022
    • Management Science

    Social Skills Improve Business Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial with Entrepreneurs in Togo

    By: Stefan Dimitriadis and Rembrand Koning
    • October 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Lyra Health: Transforming Mental Health

    By: Rembrand Koning and Nicole Keller
More from the Authors
  • Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Events, Knowledge Spillovers, and Entrepreneur Performance in Togo By: Stefan Dimitiadis and Rembrand Koning
  • Social Skills Improve Business Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial with Entrepreneurs in Togo By: Stefan Dimitriadis and Rembrand Koning
  • Lyra Health: Transforming Mental Health By: Rembrand Koning and Nicole Keller
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College