The conclusions: 1) The last two decades, however, have led to a “ghettoization” of distinctively Black names, namely, a distinctively Black name is now a much

The conclusions: 1) The last two decades, however, have led to a “ghettoization” of distinctively Black names, namely, a distinctively Black name is now a much stronger predictor of socioeconomic status. 2) We find no relationship between how Black one’s name is and life outcomes after controlling for other factors. If that conclusion is correct, then the proper interpretation of earlier audit studies using Black names on resumes is either that the impact of names does not extend beyond the callback decision (because race is directly observed at the interview stage), or that names are correlated with determinants of productivity not captured by a resume. In our data, it is difficult to distinguish between these competing hypotheses.