Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination
Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination
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DOI：
10.2139/ssrn.422902
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发表时间：
2003-05
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Marianne Bertrand;S. Mullainathan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Marianne Bertrand;S. Mullainathan
我们进行了一项实地实验，以衡量劳动力市场中的种族歧视。我们用虚构的简历回应波士顿和芝加哥报纸上的招聘广告。为了操纵人们对种族的看法，每份简历都被随机分配了一个非常非洲裔美国人的名字或一个非常白色的名字。结果显示，对非洲裔美国人的名字有明显的歧视：白色名字在面试中收到的回电要多出50%。我们还发现，种族会影响一份更好的简历的好处。对于白色名字，一份高质量的简历会增加30%的回电率，而对于非洲裔美国人来说，这一增加要小得多。居住在更好的社区的申请人会收到更多的回电，但有趣的是，这种效果并不因种族而异。不同职业和行业的歧视程度是一致的。在广告中列出平等机会雇主的联邦承包商和雇主与其他雇主一样歧视。我们几乎没有发现任何证据表明，我们的结果是由雇主从名字中推断出种族以外的东西，如社会阶层。这些结果表明，种族歧视仍然是劳动力市场的一个突出特点。
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 randomly 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.