Identifying Taste-Based Discrimination: Effect of Black Electoral Victories on Racial Prejudice and Economic Gaps

36 Pages Posted: 2 Jun 2021 Last revised: 8 Jun 2021

See all articles by Jung Sakong

Jung Sakong

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Date Written: May, 2021

Abstract

I test for the causal impact of Black electoral victories in local elections on White Americans’ attitude toward Black Americans. Using Race Implicit Attitude Test scores as a measure of racial prejudice and close-election regression-discontinuity design for causal inference, I find Black electoral victories cause measures of racial bias to rise, by 4% of the average Black-White difference in IAT scores. Simultaneously, they widen racial gaps in unemployment and mortgage denials. Interpreting these close electoral victories as instrumental variables, I find a large causal effect of prejudice-based racial discrimination on Black-White economic gaps.

Keywords: Racial discrimination, Racial discrimination Regression discontinuity

JEL Classification: D91, G41, J15, J71

Suggested Citation

Sakong, Jung, Identifying Taste-Based Discrimination: Effect of Black Electoral Victories on Racial Prejudice and Economic Gaps (May, 2021). FRB of Chicago Working Paper No. WP-2021-07, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3855260 or http://dx.doi.org/10.21033/wp-2021-07

Jung Sakong (Contact Author)

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago ( email )

230 South LaSalle Street
Chicago, IL 60604
United States

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