Labor Market Discrimination Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? Experimental and Behavioral Economics 2015

Transcription

1 Labor Market Discrimination Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? Experimental and Behavioral Economics 2015

2 Structure 1. Motivation 2. Experimental Design 3. Results 4. Interpretation 5. Conclusion Seite 2

3 Motivation Racial inequality Twice as likely to be unemployed Earn 25 % less when employed Do employers treat members of different races differentially? Seite 3

4 Motivation Audit Study White Applicant Minority Applicant But: Researchers posses far less data than employers Seite 4

5 Experimental Design Correspondence testing methodology used by Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan: Creating a Bank of Resumes Creating Identities of Applicants Responding to Ads Measuring Responses Seite 5

6 Experimental Design Resume Quality High Quality Years of experience Work in school Volunteering Computer skills Certification degrees Foreign language Honors Military experience Low Quality Less experience No Employment holes Less special skills Seite 6

7 Experimental Design 2435 resumes 2435 resumes with white names with african-american names Seite 7

8 Results Table 1: Mean Callback Rates by Racial Soundingness of Names Sample Percent callback for White names Percent callback for African-American names Ratio All sent resumes Chicago Boston Females Females in administrative jobs Females in sales jobs Males Percent difference (p-value) 3.20 (0.0000) 2.66 (0.0057) 4.05 (0.0023) 3.26 (0.0003) 3.91 (0.0003) 1.54 (0.3523) 3.04 (0.0513) Seite 8

9 Table 2: Mean Callback Rates by Racial Soundingness of Names and Resume Quality Sample Low quality resume High quality resume Ratio White names African-american names Difference (p-value) 2.29 (0.0557) 0.51 (0.6084) Seite 9

10 Table 3: Distribution of Callbacks by Employment Ad Equal Treatment [1166] Whites favored 8.39 [111] African-Americans favored 3.48 [46] But: Major source of equal treatment are the ads with no callback (83 %)! Seite 10

11 Interpretation Does a higher callback rate for White applicants imply that employers are discriminating against African-Americans? Does the research design only isolate the race or is the name manipulation conveying social class? How do the results relate to different models of racial discrimination? Seite 11

12 Interpretation Racially neutral review process Employers rank order resumes based on their quality Randomized names White and African-American names should rank similarly on average Equal treatment A race blind selection rule would generate equal treatment Seite 12 The results imply that race is a factor in the review of resumes. This matches the legal definition of discrimination.

13 Interpretation Does a higher callback rate for White applicants imply that employers are discriminating against African-Americans? Does the research design only isolate the race or is the name manipulation conveying social class? How do the results relate to different models of racial discrimination? Seite 13

14 Interpretation Employers might be inferring social background from the name and therefore discriminating against the conveyed educational background. White female Name Percent callback Mother education Emily Anne Jill Allison Laurie Sarah Meredith Carrie Kristen Average 91.7 Correlation -0,318 p = African-American female Name Percent callback Mother education Aisha Keisha Tamika Lakisha Tanisha Latoya Kenya Latonya Ebony Average 61.0 Correlation p = The results suggest little evidence that social background drives the measured race gap. Seite 14

15 Interpretation Does a higher callback rate for White applicants imply that employers are discriminating against African-Americans? Does the research design only isolate the race or is the name manipulation conveying social class? How do the results relate to different models of racial discrimination? Seite 15

16 Interpretation Relation to existing theories Taste based models Statistical models Emphasize prejudiced tastes of a group (employers) Two existing models for statistical discrimination: 1) employers use observable race to detect unobservable skills 2) employers believe that the same observable signal is more precise for whites than for African-Americans Alternative Model: lexicographic search Seite 16

17 Conclusion 1) Applicants with African-American names get far fewer callbacks for each resume they send out. 2) Even with an objectively better resume African-Americans are less likely to receive a reply than Whites with an objectively worse resume. 3) This race gap is similar across a variety of jobs, employers and industries. Seite 17

18 Thank you for your attention! Seite 18

19 Backup Table 4: Effect of Resume Chracteristics on Likelihood of Callback Variable White names African-american names Years of experience Volunteering Military experience Employment holes Work in school Honors Computer skills Special skills Seite 19