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Abstract
Previous research has found that, after controlling for test scores, measured black-white wage gaps
are small but unemployment gaps remain large. This paper complements this previous research
by examining the incidence of employer-provided benefits from the same premarket perspective.
However, marriage rates differ substantially by race, and the possibility of health-insurance coverage
through a spouse’s employer therefore distorts how the distribution of benefits available in
the market to an individual is expressed in the distribution of benefits received. Two imputation
strategies are used to address this complication. The evidence suggests that benefit availability
gaps are small.