Culture, Information, and Screening Discrimination

Posted: 2 Feb 1995

See all articles by Bradford Cornell

Bradford Cornell

Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA

Ivo Welch

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: November 1993

Abstract

We show that discrimination can occur even when it is common knowledge that underlying group characteristics do not differ and when employers do not prefer same-group candidates. When employers can judge job applicants' unknown qualities better when candidates belong to the same group and hire the best prospect from a large pool of applicants, the top applicant is likely to be from the same background as the employer. The model has policy, empirical and experimental implications. For example, the model predicts that "screening discrimination" is more likely to occur and persist in sectors in which underlying quality is important but difficult to observe, in which there are numerous applicants, in which interviewing (screening) is relatively cheap, and in which applicants have to acquire job-specific skills.

JEL Classification: J2

Suggested Citation

Cornell, Bradford and Welch, Ivo, Culture, Information, and Screening Discrimination (November 1993). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5822

Bradford Cornell

Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA ( email )

Pasadena, CA 91125
United States
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Ivo Welch (Contact Author)

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://www.ivo-welch.info

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