Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Statistical Discrimination: A Field Experiment

69 Pages Posted: 15 Jun 2016

See all articles by Amanda Y. Agan

Amanda Y. Agan

Rutgers University, Department of Economics

Sonja B. Starr

University of Chicago

Date Written: June 14, 2016

Abstract

“Ban-the-Box” (BTB) policies restrict employers from asking about applicants’ criminal histories on job applications and are often presented as a means of reducing unemployment among black men, who disproportionately have criminal records. However, withholding information about criminal records could risk encouraging statistical discrimination: employers may make assumptions about criminality based on the applicant’s race. To investigate this possibility as well as the effects of race and criminal records on employer callback rates, we sent approximately 15,000 fictitious online job applications to employers in New Jersey and New York City, in waves before and after each jurisdiction’s adoption of BTB policies. Our causal effect estimates are based on a triple-differences design, which exploits the fact that many businesses’ applications did not ask about records even before BTB and were thus unaffected by the law.

Our results confirm that criminal records are a major barrier to employment, but they also support the concern that BTB policies encourage statistical discrimination on the basis of race. Overall, white applicants received 23% more callbacks than similar black applicants (38% more in New Jersey; 6% more in New York City; we also find that the white advantage is much larger in whiter neighborhoods). Employers that ask about criminal records are 62% more likely to call back an applicant if he has no record (45% in New Jersey; 78% in New York City) — an effect that BTB compliance necessarily eliminates. However, we find that the race gap in callbacks grows dramatically at the BTB-affected companies after the policy goes into effect. Before BTB, white applicants to BTB-affected employers received about 7% more callbacks than similar black applicants, but BTB increases this gap to 45%.

Keywords: Ban the Box, statistical discrimination, racial discrimination, employment discrimination, criminal records

Suggested Citation

Agan, Amanda Y. and Starr, Sonja B., Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Statistical Discrimination: A Field Experiment (June 14, 2016). U of Michigan Law & Econ Research Paper No. 16-012, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2795795 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2795795

Amanda Y. Agan

Rutgers University, Department of Economics ( email )

New Jersey Hall
75 Hamilton St
08901, NJ Princeton 08540
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/amandayagan/

Sonja B. Starr (Contact Author)

University of Chicago ( email )

1111 E 60th St
Chicago, IL 60637
United States

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