Rental Market Discrimination Against Same-Sex Couples: Evidence From a Pairwise-Matched Email Correspondence Test

Homophobia and the home search: Rental market discrimination against same-sex couples in rural and urban housing markets

“…These tests have found that same-sex couples are between 2 and 6 percent less likely to receive responses to inquiries about housing availability. Schwegman (2019) finds this to be true even in markets with anti-discrimination legislation. When inquiries are answered, same-sex male couples are told about fewer available units than heterosexual couples (one fewer unit for every four tests) and quoted annual prices $272 higher (Levy et al, 2017).…”

“…Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia, as well as some local governments, have passed their own laws prohibiting sexual orientation-based housing discrimination, but LGBT Americans in the rest of the country may find themselves without legal recourse if they are refused housing due to their sexuality. Given enduring anti-LGBT attitudes and the lack of legal prohibitions on discriminatory behavior, it is thus perhaps not surprising that several recent correspondence studies have produced evidence of rental housing discrimination against same-sex couples across U.S. metropolitan areas (Friedman et al, 2013;Levy et al, 2017;Schwegman, 2019). These tests have found that same-sex couples are between 2 and 6 percent less likely to receive responses to inquiries about housing availability.…”

“…In this model, landlords are willing to pay an economic cost (i.e., their housing unit remaining vacant) to avoid this contact, reflecting a taste for discrimination. However, as pointed out by Schwegman (2019), landlords in high-demand markets will pay little to no cost in discriminating due to the large number of qualified applicants they can choose from. Turning away qualified applicants in rural markets where demand is generally low may be more costly.…”

“…The most recent and most geographically expansive of these studies focused on same-sex couples was conducted by Schwegman (2019), who found evidence of discrimination against same-sex male couples in his correspondence study of 94 U.S. cities. Schwegman also finds that nonwhite same-sex male couples face even greater discrimination, compounding the effects of sexual orientation and race.…”

Gender Identity, Race, and Ethnicity-based Discrimination in Access to Mental Health Care: Evidence from an Audit Correspondence Field Experiment

“…Lastly, to our knowledge, we are the first study to use experimental methods to examine how race, ethnicity, and gender identity interact to moderate or exacerbate discrimination. This adds to the limited experimental research on intersectional discrimination in general (Bourabain and Verhaeghe 2018;Burn et al 2020;Lahey and Oxley 2018;Lauster and Easterbrook 2011;Pedulla 2014;Schwegman 2019). There is ample reason to believe that TNB people of color will experience more significant discrimination than their cisgender non-white or white transgender/non-binary peers.…”