Uwaifo-Oyelere presented her research, a collaborative effort with Economics Professor Willie Belton, on the role of past institutions and information in explaining the black-white gap in self-employment in the U.S. She also discussed policy implications of this research.

Past literature has suggested that African-American self-employment rates lag far behind those of other racial groups in the U.S. Similarly, the literature also provides evidence of the long-lived nature of institutions and the relationship between institutions, decision-making, and socio-economic outcomes.

In their study, “Black–White Gap in Self-Employment. Does Intra-Race Heterogeneity Exist?" Uwaifo-Oyelere and Belton provide an explanation for the self-employment gap, focusing on the significance of repeated negative institutional shocks and how such shocks could have influenced individual's perception of success in self-employment and deterred entry.  The study finds that African-Americans, who were less likely to be influenced by negative institutional shocks and the information transmission from these experiences, have similar self-employment probabilities to comparably situated white Americans. This research is the first to highlight intra-race and cohort differences in the self-employment gap. 

More information on the Policy Summit can be found at  http://www.clevelandfed.org/community_development/events/ps2013/index.cfm.