Slavs Only: Ethnic Discrimination and Rental Prices
22 Pages Posted: 7 Oct 2018 Last revised: 29 Apr 2020
Date Written: September 14, 2018
Abstract
We study the cost of ethnic discrimination for the landlords in the housing market. There are no legal fines for ethnic discrimination in the Russian market for rental apartments – hence we can observe explicit nationality-based constraints via advertisements. After controlling on all apartment characteristics we find that ethnic discrimination is connected with a significant decrease in price. This result is consistent with Becker’s theory of taste-based discrimination. These losses are lower the more landlords in Neighborhood prefer to discriminate. It sheds some light on mechanism facilitating the persistence of discrimination.
Keywords: Ethnic Discrimination, Housing Market, Rental Market
JEL Classification: J15, L85
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation