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Does poor neighbourhood reputation create a neighbourhood effect on employment? The results of a field experiment in the UK

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  • Tunstall, Rebecca
  • Green, Anne
  • Lupton, Ruth
  • Watmough, Simon
  • Bates, Katie

Abstract

There are substantial variations in labour market outcomes between neighbourhoods. One potential partial explanation is that residents of some neighbourhoods face discrimination from employers. Although studies of deprived areas have recorded resident perceptions of discrimination by employers and negative employer perceptions of certain areas, until now there has been no direct evidence on whether employers treat job applicants differently by area of residence. This paper reports a unique experiment to test for a neighbourhood reputation effect involving 2001 applications to 667 real jobs by fictional candidates nominally resident in neighbourhoods with poor and bland reputations. The experiment found no statistically significant difference in employer treatment of applicants from these areas, indicating that people living in neighbourhoods with poor reputations did not face ‘postcode discrimination’ in the labour market, at the initial selection stage.

Suggested Citation

  • Tunstall, Rebecca & Green, Anne & Lupton, Ruth & Watmough, Simon & Bates, Katie, 2014. "Does poor neighbourhood reputation create a neighbourhood effect on employment? The results of a field experiment in the UK," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 55913, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:55913
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

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    2. L'Horty, Yannick & Mahmoudi, Naomie & Petit, Pascale & Wolff, François-Charles, 2022. "Is disability more discriminatory in hiring than ethnicity, address or gender? Evidence from a multi-criteria correspondence experiment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 303(C).
    3. Emmanuel Duguet & David Gray & Yannick L'Horty & Loïc du Parquet & Pascale Petit, 2020. "Labour market effects of urban riots: An experimental assessment," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 787-806, June.
    4. Gaddis, S. Michael, 2018. "An Introduction to Audit Studies in the Social Sciences," SocArXiv e5hfc, Center for Open Science.
    5. Mathieu Bunel & Yannick L’Horty & Pascale Petit, 2016. "Discrimination based on place of residence and access to employment," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(2), pages 267-286, February.
    6. Mikula Štěpán & Reggiani Tommaso, 2022. "Residential-Based Discrimination in the Labor Market," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 22(2), pages 373-388, April.
    7. Carlsson, Magnus & Abrar Reshid, Abdulaziz & Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2018. "Neighborhood Signaling Effects, Commuting Time, and Employment: Evidence from a Field Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 11284, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Sylvain Chareyron & Laetitia Challe & Yannick L’Horty & Pascale Petit, 2022. "Can subsidies paid directly to employers reduce residential discrimination in employment? An assessment based on serial field experiments," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(6), pages 1202-1218, May.
    9. Julie MacLeavy & David Manley, 2018. "(Re)discovering the lost middle: intergenerational inheritances and economic inequality in urban and regional research," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(10), pages 1435-1446, October.
    10. Zanoni, Wladimir & Acevedo, Paloma & Hernández, Hugo, 2022. "Job Market Discrimination against Slum Dwellers in Urban Argentina," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12122, Inter-American Development Bank.
    11. Leen Vandecasteele & Anette Eva Fasang, 2021. "Neighbourhoods, networks and unemployment: The role of neighbourhood disadvantage and local networks in taking up work," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(4), pages 696-714, March.
    12. Magnus Carlsson & Stefan Eriksson, 2023. "Do employers avoid hiring workers from poor neighborhoods? Experimental evidence from the real labor market," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 125(2), pages 376-402, April.
    13. Sylvain Chareyron & Laetitia Challe & Yannick L'Horty & Pascale Petit, 2020. "The failure of the “Emplois Francs” scheme: evaluation with repeated testing," Erudite Working Paper 2020-02, Erudite.
    14. Baert, Stijn, 2017. "Hiring Discrimination: An Overview of (Almost) All Correspondence Experiments Since 2005," IZA Discussion Papers 10738, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    JEL classification:

    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

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