Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination

@article{citeulike:2300741, abstract = {Author contact info: Marianne Bertrand Graduate School of Business University of Chicago 5807 South Woodlawn Avenue Chicago, IL 60637 Tel: 773/834-5943 Fax: 773/702-0458 E-Mail: marianne.bertrand@gsb.uchicago.edu Sendhil Mullainathan Department of Economics Littauer 208 Harvard University Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617/496-2720 Fax: 617/495-7730 E-Mail: mullain@fas.harvard.edu 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 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.}, author = {Bertrand, Marianne and Mullainathan, Sendhil }, citeulike-article-id = {2300741}, journal = {National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series}, keywords = {racism, social-science}, month = {July}, pages = {9873+}, posted-at = {2008-01-29 04:36:08}, priority = {3}, title = {Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination}, url = {http://www.nber.org/papers/w9873}, year = {2003} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2300741 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2300741 TI - Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series SP - 9873 N2 - Author contact info: Marianne Bertrand Graduate School of Business University of Chicago 5807 South Woodlawn Avenue Chicago, IL 60637 Tel: 773/834-5943 Fax: 773/702-0458 E-Mail: marianne.bertrand@gsb.uchicago.edu Sendhil Mullainathan Department of Economics Littauer 208 Harvard University Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617/496-2720 Fax: 617/495-7730 E-Mail: mullain@fas.harvard.edu 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 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. KW - racism KW - social-science AU - Bertrand, Marianne AU - Mullainathan, Sendhil PY - 2003/July// UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9873 ER -