Field Experiments of Discrimination in the Market Place
Open accessAbstract
Controlled experiments, using matched pairs of bogus transactors, to test for discrimination in the marketplace have been conducted for over 30 years, and have extended across 10 countries. Significant, persistent and pervasive levels of discrimination have been found against non‐whites and women in labour, housing and product markets. Rates of employment discrimination against non‐whites, in excess of 25% have been measured in Australia, Europe and North America. A small number of experiments have also investigated employment discrimination against the disabled in Britain and the Netherlands, and against older applicants in the United States.
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Skin tone (colorism) has long been identified as among the most salient markers for discrimination.
“Skin tone (i.e., colorism) has long been identified as among the most salient markers for discrimination (10, 11).”
From Nobel and novice: Author prominence affects peer review (2022) · cites this paper as [11]
The discussion of employment experiments (p. F491) distinguishes discrimination based on colour from discrimination based on national origin, and the later discussion reports greater discrimination against non-white than white immigrant groups (pp. F499–F502). These passages support colour as a longstanding marker in employment discrimination, but they do not establish that skin-tone variation (colorism) is among the most salient markers of discrimination generally. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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Ethnic Discrimination in Germany’s Labour Market: A Field Experiment
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“The studies have mainly dealt with the labour market, but also with the housing and the product markets (see Riach and Rich (2002) for a detailed review).”
BackgroundA controlled field experiment on corruption
Armantier, O., & Boly, A. (2011) · European Economic Review · doi:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2011.04.007 · Cited by 146 · see citing works
Nobel and novice: Author prominence affects peer review
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Experimental Evidence of Discrimination in the Hiring of First‐ and Second‐generation Immigrants
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Fairness and Bias in Algorithmic Hiring: A Multidisciplinary Survey
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Racial discrimination in local public services: A field experiment in the United States
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Integrating induction and deduction for finding evidence of discrimination
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“…of acceptance rates across such characteristics is then considered evidence of discrimination, and such studies have uncovered discrimination in fields as diverse as hiring, housing, and lending (Cain, 1996; Riach & Rich, 2002; Bertrand & Mullainathan, 2004; Pager, 2007; Bertrand & Duflo, 2017).”
BackgroundAlgorithmic monoculture and social welfare
(2023) · The Societal Impacts of Algorithmic Decision-Making · doi:10.1145/3603195.3603202
- Authors
- Riach, P. A., & Rich, J.
- Affiliations
- Monash University (AU)
- IZA - Institute of Labor Economics (DE)
- Venue
- The Economic Journal
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2002-11-01
- Volume
- 112
- Issue
- 483
- Pages
- F480-F518
- ISSN
- 0013-0133 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-0297
- OpenAlex
- W2091411296
- Cited by
- 911
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 64 · 2022: 45 · 2021: 45 · 2020: 53 · 2019: 56 · 2018: 62 · 2017: 48 · 2016: 44 · 2015: 52 · 2014: 68 · 2013: 46 · 2012: 49
- FWCI
- 24.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- s3.amazonaws.com
- Locations
- The Economic Journal (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
- Keywords
- employment discrimination, racial discrimination, gender discrimination, housing discrimination, disabled workers, older workers, matched pairs, field experiments
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