Measuring Employment Discrimination through Controlled Experiments

Abstract

Race/ethnic discrimination in hiring can be measured under controlled conditions using matched pairs of minority and nonminority research assistants posing as applicants for the same job. In 149 in-person job applications in the Washington, D.C., labor market, African American applicants were treated less favorably than equally qualified nonminorities more than one-fifth of the time. Employer behavior during these interactions suggest that, within continued public and private efforts against discrimination, particular attention should be accorded to the cognitive underpinnings of bias.

Racial Disparities in Job Finding and Offered Wages

“…11 Disparities in the arrival rate of matches due, for example, to differences in search behavior or discriminatory practices of firms can be captured by assuming that      . This relationship is reported in several audit studies in sociology and economics (e.g., Bendick et al 1994, Pager 2003, Bertrand and Mullainathan 2004. From equations (2) and (5) it is straightforward to show that  *   0.…”

“…In-person audit studies, for instance, compare the probability of receiving a callback or job offer across carefully matched pairs of black and white individuals who pose as applicants in real world job searches (e.g., Turner et al 1991, Bendick and Reinoso 1994, Pager 2003, Pager et al 2009). 8 Almost uniformly these studies find that black testers fare substantially worse than their white counterparts; which is commonly interpreted as strong evidence of discrimination.…”

The Link Between Diversity and Equality Management Practice Bundles and Racial Diversity in the Managerial Ranks: Does Firm Size Matter?

“…Our findings suggest that these DEM practices, which are designed to create opportunities and a socially inclusive climate in an organization, may be more valuable for the advancement of African American managers. Given that African Americans frequently experience "access to management" discrimination due to prejudice, stereotypes, and from having a "black"-sounding name (Bendick, Jackson, & Reinoso, 1994;Fryer & Levitt, 2004), it is a noteworthy finding that In addition, the effect of manager accountability DEM practices on racial diversity in managerial ranks was most robust for Asian managers. Manager accountability DEM practices are aimed at increasing racial diversity in managerial ranks by directly motivating the actions and behavior of managers to meet diversity goals through performance appraisal and reward systems.…”

Indiscriminate discrimination: A correspondence test for ethnic homophily in the Chicago labor market

“…Stoll, Raphael, and Holzer (2004) find firms with black hiring agents are considerably more likely to hire black applicants. Bendick, Jackson, and Reinoso (1994) also find, in an audit study, that black hiring agents are less likely to discriminate against applicants and that the effect of discrimination are greater in the suburbs, where black applicants are more likely to face white employers. Lack of access to transportation has been shown by Bollinger and Ihlanfeldt (2003) and O'Regan and Quigley (1999) to be a channel through which minority workers face disadvantages in the suburban labor market, although our findings show that discrimination does also play a role in city-suburban differences.…”