Studies of colorism—the idea that racial hierarchies coexist with gradational inequalities based on skin color—consistently find that darker skin correlates with lower socioeconomic outcomes. Despite the causal nature of this debate, evidence remains predominantly associational. This study revisits the colorism literature by proposing a causal model underlying these theories. It discusses conditions under which associations may reflect contemporary causal effects of skin color and evaluates strategies for identifying these effects. Using data from the AddHealth and NLSY97 surveys and applying two identification strategies, the study estimates the causal effects of skin color on college degree attainment, personal earnings, and family income among White, Black, and Hispanic populations in the United States. Results show that darker skin correlates with poorer educational and economic outcomes within racial groups. However, evidence of contemporary causal effects of skin color is partial, limited to college attainment of Whites and family income of Hispanics. For Blacks, results suggest a generalized penalty associated with being Black rather than gradation based on skin tone. Methodologically, the article advocates using sensitivity analyses to account for unobserved confounders in models for skin color effects and uses sibling fixed-effects as a secondary complementary strategy.

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对肤色歧视的研究——种族等级制度与基于肤色的等级不平等共存的观点——一致发现，深色皮肤与较低的社会经济成果相关。尽管这场争论具有因果性，但证据仍然主要是关联性的。本研究通过提出这些理论背后的因果模型来重新审视色彩主义文献。它讨论了关联可以反映当代肤色因果影响的条件，并评估了识别这些影响的策略。该研究利用 AddHealth 和 NLSY97 调查的数据并应用两种识别策略，估计了美国白人、黑人和西班牙裔人群中肤色对大学学位获得、个人收入和家庭收入的因果影响。结果表明，深色皮肤与种族群体中较差的教育和经济成果相关。然而，当代肤色因果影响的证据是片面的，仅限于白人的大学教育程度和西班牙裔的家庭收入。对于黑人来说，结果表明普遍的惩罚与黑人身份相关，而不是基于肤色的分级。在方法论上，本文主张使用敏感性分析来解释肤色效应模型中未观察到的混杂因素，并使用同级固定效应作为次要补充策略。

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