The term paper is mostly a critique of Graddy's paper - Essay Example

The study that was undertaken by Graddy focused on over 400 restaurants from franchises that included Wendy’s, Burger King, Roy Rodger’s, and KFC. The pricing data was collected by using the result of studies done by Card and Krueger from 1994, with the income and race information coming from the census information of 1990. As the Graddy work is dated 1997, the time period for which the data is collected is appropriate, but will reflect the 1990s rather than looking towards the future. The reasons for using the data from fast food restaurants seems to be sound as it was an industry chosen for its product duplication across markets inside the United States.

Graddy notes that previous studies of a similar type were done in reference to supermarket prices, but did not distinguish between the observable differences between race and income. Graddy dates the last study of that type to have been done in 1982, thus suggesting further that this area of inquiry has been neglected. In more recent studies to the date of the Graddy work, the topic of racial differences in price points was discussed concerning difference in automobile prices where Caucasian and African American customers were concerned where identical automobiles were quoted with different prices where one race was compared to another.

African American buyers were routinely quoted a significantly higher price than Caucasian buyers. The nature of the way in which prices are determined, it seems, often has a relationship to race. In the Graddy study, she points out that this point is proven according to the work that she has done due to her work that shows that meal prices are at a difference of 5% when the population of a neighborhood is at 50% or more for an African American population. The initial study from which Graddy gathers her data from is based upon the work of Card and Krueger who surveyed restaurants in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania in February and March of 1992 and then once more in November and December 1992.

The survey questioned 473 stores with only 410 stores responding which gave a 87% response rate. For the first set, valid responses were gathered from 387 stores, with the second phase having success with 376 stores. Grady correlated this information with zip codes, first calling the individual stores, and then verifying that information with zip code directories. This information was then correlated with the information from the census in order to create valid information about place and price information in regard to race distribution in the areas of study.

The information that was correlated for the race and price distribution section was then correlated in such a way as to add dimension to the study. The data was correlated with information from the 1992 Uniform Crime Reports Crime in New Jersey and Crime in Pennsylvania that was gathered from both the New Jersey and Pennsylvania police departments. After all the data was collected and correlated, 322 restaurants had provided enough information to make the necessary relationships within the study which included information about starting wage, number of employees, and crime rates.

The first table in the