Indiscriminate Discrimination: A Correspondence Test for Ethnic Homophily in the Chicago Labor Market
20 Pages Posted: 30 Mar 2011 Last revised: 21 Aug 2013
Date Written: December 1, 2012
Abstract
Numerous field experiments have demonstrated the existence of discrimination in labor markets against specific minority groups. This paper uses a correspondence test to determine whether this discrimination is due to prejudice against specific groups, or a general preference for the majority group. Three groups of identical fabricated resumes are sent to help-wanted advertisements in Chicago newspapers: one with Anglo-Saxon names, one with African-American names, and one with fictitious foreign names whose ethnic origin is unidentifiable to most Americans. Resumes with Anglo-Saxon names generate nearly one third more call-backs than identical resumes with non Anglo-Saxon ones, either African-American or Foreign. We take this as evidence that discriminatory behavior is part of a larger pattern of unequal treatment of any member of non-majority groups, ethnic homophily.
Keywords: Correspondence testing, Discrimination, xenophobia, ethnic homophily
JEL Classification: J71, J64
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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