Discrimination in Hiring: Evidence from Retail Sales

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Benson, Alan; Board, Simon; Meyer-Ter-Vehn, Moritz
• 署名单位: University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities; University of California System; University of California Los Angeles
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6527
• DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdad087
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 1956-1987
• 关键词: motor-vehicle searches; racial bias; PREJUDICE; culture; RACE

摘要

We propose a simple model of racial bias in hiring that encompasses three major theories: taste-based discrimination, screening discrimination, and complementary production. We derive a test that can distinguish these theories based on the mean and variance of workers' productivity under managers of different pairs of races. We apply this test to study discrimination at a major U.S. retailer using data from 48,755 newly hired commission-based salespeople. White, black, and Hispanic managers within the same store are significantly more likely to hire workers of their own race, consistent with all three theories. For black-Hispanic pairs, productivity variance is lower for same-race pairs than cross-race pairs, implying that screening discrimination dominates. For white-Hispanic pairs, mean productivity is higher for same-race pairs, indicating a combination of screening discrimination and complementary production. For white-black pairs, biased hiring implies the presence of discrimination, but productivity results suggest the effects of the three forms of discrimination offset one another.