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A Discrimination Report Card

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Kline
  • Evan K. Rose
  • Christopher R. Walters

Abstract

We develop an empirical Bayes ranking procedure that assigns ordinal grades to noisy measurements, balancing the information content of the assigned grades against the expected frequency of ranking errors. Applying the method to a massive correspondence experiment, we grade the race and gender contact gaps of 97 US employers, the identities of which we disclose for the first time. The grades are presented alongside measures of uncertainty about each firm's contact gap in an accessible report card that is easily adaptable to other settings where ranks and levels are of simultaneous interest.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Kline & Evan K. Rose & Christopher R. Walters, 2024. "A Discrimination Report Card," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(8), pages 2472-2525, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:114:y:2024:i:8:p:2472-2525
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20230700
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Melo, Vitor & Rocha, Hugo Vaca Pereira & Sigaud, Liam & Warren, Patrick L. & Gaddis, S. Michael, 2024. "Understanding Discrimination in College Admissions: A Field Experiment," SocArXiv 5ctms, Center for Open Science.
    2. Sarah Moon, 2025. "Optimal Policy Choices Under Uncertainty," Papers 2503.03910, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2025.
    3. Patrick Bayer & Kerwin Kofi Charles & Ellora Derenoncourt, 2025. "Racial Inequality in the Labor Market," Working Papers 343, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    4. Walters, Christopher, 2024. "Empirical Bayes methods in labor economics," Handbook of Labor Economics,, Elsevier.
    5. repec:osf:socarx:5ctms_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Christopher R. Walters, 2024. "Empirical Bayes Methods in Labor Economics," NBER Working Papers 33091, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. JoonHo Lee & Daihe Sui, 2025. "Fully Bayesian Inference for Meta-Analytic Deconvolution Using Efron’s Log-Spline Prior," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-49, August.
    8. Juan C. Yamin, 2025. "Poverty Targeting with Imperfect Information," Papers 2506.18188, arXiv.org.
    9. Jiaying Gu & Nikolaos Ignatiadis & Azeem M. Shaikh, 2025. "Reasonable uncertainty: Confidence intervals in empirical Bayes discrimination detection," Papers 2508.13110, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C11 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Bayesian Analysis: General
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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