Of Chicken Entrails, Anthropology, and a Realistic Social Science

Abstract

Barbara Bergmann has advocated direct observation of market behavior by economists. There is a history of such activity in the area of labor market discrimination, but that experimental work has mainly been conducted by non-economists. We have followed the lead of these researchers and conducted audits of employment hiring behavior, testing for discrimination on the basis of gender and sex. The technique involves sending matched pairs of job applications. Discrimination was found against female, Greek, and Vietnamese applicants. The paper recommends improvements in experimental design for future audits.

JEL Classification: J71