An Introduction to Audit Studies in the Social Sciences

Gaddis, S. Michael

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-71153-9_1

Cited by 123 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 258 publications

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“…Because audits are typically conducted in real‐world environments, they also tend to have greater external validity compared with lab‐based experiments. The basic audit design typically includes a field experiment in which an attribute is randomly assigned to one tester within a pair of similar or near‐identical testers to test the effect of that attribute on the outcome of interest (Gaddis, ).…”

Section: Audit Methods and Estimating Discriminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Each record and race contrast can be considered a separate experiment (Cox, ). We have a within or matched design on the criminal record signal and a between design on the race signal (Gaddis, ; Lahey & Beasley, ). Fear of arousing the suspicion of admissions officials or introducing potential bias led us to opt for a mixed within/between design across characteristics rather than for a full (four applications per institution) within design (Gaddis, ; Phillips, ; Weichselbaumer, , ).…”

Section: Design and Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Criminal records and college admissions: A modified experimental audit

Stewart

Uggen

2019

Criminology

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In this article, we consider the effect of criminal records on college admissions. Nearly 72 percent of colleges require criminal history information during their application processes, which indicates that an applicant's criminal history could be a significant impediment to achieving the benefits associated with higher education. We conducted a modified experimental audit to learn whether and to what extent criminal records affect admissions decisions. Matched same-race pairs of tester applications were sent to a national sample of nonelite 4-year colleges, with both testers applying as either Black or White. Within each pair, one application signaled a prior low-level felony conviction only when required by the application. Consistent with the findings of research on employment, we find the rejection rate for applicants with felony convictions was nearly 2.5 times the rate of our control testers. Relative to the large racial differences observed in previous studies of hiring decisions, we find smaller racial differences in admissions decisions. Nevertheless, Black applicants with criminal records were particularly penalized when disclosing a felony record at colleges with high campus crime rates. We address implications for reentry, racial progress, and the college "Ban the Box" movement. We suggest colleges consider narrowing the scope of such inquiries or removing the question altogether -particularly when it conflicts with the goals of these institutions, including reducing the underrepresentation of students of color." 156

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Section: Audit Methods and Estimating Discriminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Design and Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Criminal records and college admissions: A modified experimental audit

Stewart

Uggen

2019

Criminology

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“…gender and ethnicity). Different response rates (commonly referred to as "callback") provide causal evidence of discrimination (for overviews, see Gaddis 2018;Neumark 2016;Pager 2007). Across a wide range of countries, minority groups and labour-market segments, these studies have demonstrated that candidates with the same observable productivity-relevant characteristics are nonetheless treated differently, thus proving the existence of labourmarket discrimination beyond a reasonable doubt.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taste or statistics? A correspondence study of ethnic, racial and religious labour market discrimination in Germany

Koopmans

Veit

Yemane

2019

Ethnic and Racial Studies

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In this study we compare rates of discrimination across German-born applicants from thirty-five ethnic groups in which various racial and religious treatment groups are embedded, this study allows us to better distinguish taste and statistical sources of discrimination, and to assess the relative importance of ethnicity, phenotype and religious affiliation as signals triggering discrimination. The study is based on applications to almost 6,000 job vacancies with male and female applicants in eight occupations across Germany. We test taste discrimination based on cultural value distance between groups against statistical discrimination based on average education levels and find that discrimination is mostly driven by the former. Based on this pattern, ethnic, racial and religious groups whose average values are relatively distant from the German average face the strongest discrimination. By contrast, employers do not treat minority groups with value patterns closer to Germany's different from ethnic German applicants without a migration background.

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“…We test whether this difficult to observe behavior occurs by conducting an audit study. An audit study, also know as a correspondence study, is an experimental approach designed to identify hard-to-observe phenomena (Gaddis, 2017;Heckman, 1998). 5 The basic design of an audit study is uncomplicated and includes only a few steps.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internet Service Provision under Authoritarian Rule: A Field Experiment in Belarus

Crabtree¹,

Weidmann²

2018

Preprint

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Do authoritarian regimes strategically limit the opposition’s Internet access? By constricting Internet access to potential challengers, governments can reduce the need to censor (since anti-regime content would be less likely to be produced and read) and also the need for large infrastructure shutdowns (which may harm the government). Cross-national work shows that political exclusion is associated with significantly lower rates of connectivity for the affected groups, but cannot tell us whether this pattern is because governments strategically limiting Internet access of the political opposition. We test this mechanism with a field experiment in Belarus. We email support centers of the national telecommunications provider and vary partisan cues in our emails. In linewith the strategic exclusion mechanism, we find a tendency that opposition support leads to lower response rates for Internet-related service requests. Due to the low responserate, however, our findings largely fail to reach conventional levels of significance.

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An Introduction to Audit Studies in the Social Sciences

Cited by 123 publications

References 258 publications

Criminal records and college admissions: A modified experimental audit

Criminal records and college admissions: A modified experimental audit

Taste or statistics? A correspondence study of ethnic, racial and religious labour market discrimination in Germany

Internet Service Provision under Authoritarian Rule: A Field Experiment in Belarus

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