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Race and Gender in the US Economy is the first economic and legal analysis of the economic status of women and Asian, Black, and Latinx Americans in the United States. Building on his decades of expertise, Gerald Jaynes argues that many economists undervalue the impact that changing antidiscrimination laws had on the behavioral norms of the American people as men and women fought to end discrimination in America’s markets and other institutions. These fights often happened outside the economic marketplace—in courts, legislative bodies, and social institutions—and succeeded in improving the economic status of people of color and women.
Blending economic reasoning and data with bold historical narrative, this book examines the changing economic status of minoritized groups within the context of developing constitutional law, extending from the Thirteenth Amendment's abolition of slavery to and beyond the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Jaynes provides readers with an insightful new way of looking at long-standing issues concerning the effectiveness of political action in determining economic gains.
Gerald Jaynes is the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Economics, Black Studies, and Urban Studies at Yale University. His interdisciplinary research has contributed to economic theory, history, race relations, and the economics of immigration.
“Gerald Jaynes is a brilliant economic historian who for years has enthralled and enlightened his students with a unique series of enduringly relevant questions about discrimination and the law in a society shaped by the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. This fascinating book is an accessible resource for those seeking to understand the role that race and gender continue to play in our economy. A vitally important book for our times.”—Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University
“Race and Gender in the US Economy is a rich, analytical review of constitutional principles pertaining to discrimination through an economic and historical lens. With a novel focus on norms prevailing at each moment in history, this book is an accessible and highly recommended resource.”—Gavin Wright, author of Sharing the Prize: The Economics of the Civil Rights Revolution in the American South