Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination

Abstract

We perform a field experiment to measure racial discrimination in the labor market. We respond with fictitious resumes to help-wanted ads in Boston and Chicago newspapers. To manipulate perception of race, each resume is assigned either a very African American sounding name or a very White sounding name. The results show significant discrimination against African-American names: White names receive 50 percent more callbacks for interviews. We also find that race affects the benefits of a better resume. For White names, a higher quality resume elicits 30 percent more callbacks whereas for African Americans, it elicits a far smaller increase. Applicants living in better neighborhoods receive more callbacks but, interestingly, this effect does not differ by race. The amount of discrimination is uniform across occupations and industries. Federal contractors and employers who list "Equal Opportunity Employer" in their ad discriminate as much as other employers. We find little evidence that our results are driven by employers inferring something other than race, such as social class, from the names. These results suggest that racial discrimination is still a prominent feature of the labor market.

Glass Ceilings or Sticky Floors? Statistical Discrimination in a Dynamic Model of Hiring and Promotion

“…Furthermore, this finding is arguably consistent with the statistical discrimination model derived above, as not only do Goldin and Rouse quote several major conductors as saying that they believe women are generally inferior to men in an orchestra, but also, the female musicians in their sample appear to be somewhat less ÔskilledÕ on average than the male musicians. 15 In the context of race, similar evidence of discrimination in hiring comes from Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004). In this study, they sent resumes to a variety of newspaper job postings, where the only meaningful difference across resumés was that some had typically African-American names while others had typically white names.…”

The Long‐Term Economic Benefits of Natural Mentoring Relationships for Youth

“…Natural mentors often share cultural and demographic characteristics with their mentees, and therefore also can act as an important source of racial identity socialization for racial and ethnic minority youth (Hurd et al 2012; Hurd and Sellers 2013). Mentors may also assist racial minority youth with the experiences of racism and prejudice that they are likely to face in institutions such as the school system and the workplace (Bertrand and Mullainathan 2003; Fisher et al 2000). Risks such as these can disrupt social competence, autonomy, and academic functioning in these settings, which in turn may have negative repercussions for future employment and earnings (Purtell and McLoyd 2013).…”

Passe inn og passe til

“…Først og fremst gjelder dette diskrimineringsstudier, som har blitt gjort med bruk av felteksperimenter (Midtbøen & Rogstad 2012;Birkelund et al 2014;Birkelund et al 2016;Kaas & Manger 2012;Bertrand & Mullainathan 2004;Carlsson & Rooth 2007;Bursell 2014). Premisset om betydningen av å studere handlinger framfor holdninger, er felles i disse studiene og denne vi presenterer her.…”

“…Studier som har kartlagt diskriminering i tidligere stadier av ansettelsesprosessen, har bidratt med viktige innsikter om arbeidsgiveres preferanser når det gjelder søkere med minoritetsbakgrunn (se for eksempel Bertrand & Mullainathan 2004;Pager & Quillian 2005;Carlsson & Rooth 2007;Midtbøen & Rogstad 2012;Kaas & Manger 2012;Blommaert et al 2013;Bursell 2014;Midtbøen 2016), men de samme studiene bidrar også til å identifisere seleksjonsmekanismer som gjelder for søkere med andre kjennetegn, deriblant alder (Ahmed et al 2012), kjønn (Neumark et al 1996) og utseende (Larkin & Pines 1979).…”