ECONOMIC

whose owners or white workers have less discriminatory attitudes towardblacks will be likely to employ more blacks. These firms prosper if blacksreceive lower wages. When such firms expand, the demand for black workersincreases and the discriminatory differential declines.Competition may not be a fully effective weapon against discrimination,however, if prejudice is very widespread. The second factor, working withthe first, was a change in attitudes toward discrimination against blacks. Thisdevelopment improved the relative income and occupational status ofblacks by directly reducing labor market discrimination. It also facilitatedthe passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and other Federal and State legislationas well as court decisions prohibiting discrimination in wages andemployment. Such changes in the legal system made discrimination morecostly and therefore lessened it. The reduction in discrimination in housingand in public accommodations brought about increased contact betweenblacks and whites and presumably expanded the information sources andjob opportunities for blacks.Dead-End JobsThere is a widespread belief that, compared to white males, black malesare relegated to poorly paid, dead-end jobs—that is, jobs in which earningsare initially low and do not rise with experience. This view originated as aresult of examining the relation between age and income for white and blackmales at a moment in time (cross-section). For example, reading downthe columns of Table 39 indicates a substantial decline for older age groupsin the income of black males relative to white males. The appropriateprocedure for a study of life-cycle income, however, is to follow a group(cohort) as it ages, as is shown along the diagonals of Table 39. For eachTABLE 39.—Income of Negro males as percent of income of white males, by type of income and age,1949, 1959, and 1969[Percent]Annual income:25-34 years.35-44 years.45-54 years.55-64 years.Weekly income:25-34 years.35-44 years..45-54 years.55-64 years.Type of income by age group194919595748 46 456152 48 475752 49486157 5251196965 56 535167 5855 53Note.—Data for 1949 and 1959 relate to Negro and races other than white end therefore are not strictly comparablewith data for 1969 which relate to the Negro race only.Sources: Department of Commerce (Bureau of the Census) and Council of Economic Advisers.cohort, the ratio of black to white annual and weekly incomes either did notdecline at all with age from 1949 to 1969, or declined at an appreciablyslower rate than in the cross-section. Thus, experience appears to have a152