The Unintended Consequences of the '91 Civil Rights Act

Abstract

The emphasis on firing-based litigation has had subtle but important effects.

In the debate over the legislation that would become the 1991 Civil Rights Act, supporters of the bill argued that it was necessary to open opportunities for women and minorities in industries that had traditionally been unwelcoming, while opponents criticized it as a "quota bill" and "lawyers' bonanza." Our research suggests that the opponents' quota-based hiring fears were unfounded, but the bill also appears not to have improved minority employment in traditionally exclusionary industries, and may have even reversed what to that point had been improving minority employment trends in those industries.

Keywords: Civil Rights Act, litigation, labor policy, quotas, industrial policy, employment, employment trends, minority employment, federal regulations, regulations

JEL Classification: J7, J78, J21, K31