Customer Discrimination and Employment Outcomes: Theory and Evidence from the French Labor Market

48 Pages Posted: 3 May 2014

See all articles by Pierre-Philippe Combes

Pierre-Philippe Combes

Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Bruno Decreuse

University of Angers - Research Group in Quantitative Saving (GREQAM); Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)

Morgane Laouénan

Catholic University of Louvain (UCL); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Alain Trannoy

National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)

Abstract

The paper investigates the link between the over-exposure of African immigrants to unemployment in France and their under-representation in jobs in contact with customers. We build a two-sector matching model with ethnic sector-specific preferences, economy-wide employer discrimination, and customer discrimination in jobs in contact with customers. The outcomes of the model allow us to build a test of ethnic discrimination in general and customer discrimination in particular. We run the test on French individual data in a cross-section of local labor markets (Employment Areas). Our results show that there is both ethnic and customer discrimination in the French labor market.

Keywords: discrimination, matching frictions, jobs in contact, ethnic unemployment, local labor markets

JEL Classification: J15, J61, R23

Suggested Citation

Combes, Pierre-Philippe and Decreuse, Bruno and Laouénan, Morgane and Trannoy, Alain, Customer Discrimination and Employment Outcomes: Theory and Evidence from the French Labor Market. IZA Discussion Paper No. 8150, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2432434 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2432434

Pierre-Philippe Combes (Contact Author)

Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) - Department of Economics ( email )

28, rue des Saints peres
Paris, 75007
France

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.gate.cnrs.fr/ppcombes

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Bruno Decreuse

University of Angers - Research Group in Quantitative Saving (GREQAM) ( email )

Centre de la Vieille Charité
2, rue de la Charité
Marseille, 13002
France

Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)

54, boulevard Raspail
Paris, 75006
France

Morgane Laouénan

Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) ( email )

Place Montesquieu, 3
Louvain-la-Neuve, 1348
Belgium

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Alain Trannoy

National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) ( email )

54, boulevard Raspail
Paris, 75006
France

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