In-group and Out-group Biases in the Marketplace: A Field Experiment During the World Cup

39 Pages Posted: 24 Mar 2015 Last revised: 30 Nov 2016

See all articles by Fernanda L. L. de Leon

Fernanda L. L. de Leon

University of Kent - Canterbury Campus

Sang-Hyun Kim

University of East Anglia (UEA)

Date Written: November 2016

Abstract

This paper estimates the effects of group identity on discrimination in the marketplace. We conducted an audit study in two electronics markets in São Paulo, Brazil during the 2014 Brazil World Cup (WC), and recorded the behaviour of 557 sellers in 922 market interactions. To identify discrimination patterns and the rationale behind them, we manipulated the salience of buyers' group membership by making them wear t-shirts of national football teams, and exploit the outcomes of the WC matches, which arguably strengthened sellers' group identity. We detect in-group market favouritism (i.e. lower prices) towards buyers wearing the Brazil t-shirt when Brazil had won a match in the very recent past, and discrimination (i.e. higher prices and lower willingness to trade) against buyers wearing a t-shirt of another winning team. Our analysis rejects the explanation that these differential treatments were always motivated by economic profits. Instead, the results indicate taste-based discrimination (Becker, 1957) and shed light on the ways in which in-group and out-group biases occur in market outcomes.

Keywords: ingroup and outgroup discrimination, bargaining in the marketplace

JEL Classification: C93, D71, J15

Suggested Citation

L. L. de Leon, Fernanda and Kim, Sang-Hyun, In-group and Out-group Biases in the Marketplace: A Field Experiment During the World Cup (November 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2584414 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2584414

Fernanda L. L. de Leon (Contact Author)

University of Kent - Canterbury Campus ( email )

Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NP
United Kingdom

Sang-Hyun Kim

University of East Anglia (UEA) ( email )

Norwich Research Park
Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7TJ
United Kingdom

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