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A field study of rental market discrimination across origins in France

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  • Acolin, Arthur
  • Bostic, Raphael
  • Painter, Gary

Abstract

Discrimination against particular groups in the housing market increases search costs and limits optimal matching, thus resulting in economic and social inefficiencies. This paper tests for the existence of discrimination in the French rental market against individuals with names which signal their connection to five immigrant groups (Northern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Turkey, Poland, Portugal-Spain) by implementing an online field study using one of France's largest online advertisements website. The results show that applicants with foreign sounding names coming from Northern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Turkey are 16 to 22 percentage points less likely to receive a response than applicants with French names or names associated with Poland, Portugal or Spain. In addition, when applicants with foreign sounding names from any origin receive a response, it is significantly more likely to be negative or include a request for more information than responses to emails including French sounding names. Finally, we find some geographic differences in response rate differentials that are correlated with differences in the local income and share of immigrants. This provides evidence that landlords use names as a proxy for economic and other sociodemographic characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Acolin, Arthur & Bostic, Raphael & Painter, Gary, 2016. "A field study of rental market discrimination across origins in France," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 49-63.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juecon:v:95:y:2016:i:c:p:49-63
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2016.07.003
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    Cited by:

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    2. Mathieu Bunel & Yannick L'Horty & Loïc du Parquet & Pascale Petit, 2017. "Identifying preference-based discrimination in rental market: A field experiment in Paris," TEPP Working Paper 2017-06, TEPP.
    3. Julie Le Gallo & Yannick L'Horty & Loïc du Parquet & Pascale Petit, 2017. "Les discriminations dans l’accès au logement en France : Un testing de couverture nationale," TEPP Research Report 2017-11, TEPP.
    4. Hamermesh, Daniel S. & Biddle, Jeff E., 2018. "Taking Time Use Seriously: Income, Wages and Price Discrimination," IZA Discussion Papers 11997, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Souleymane Mbaye, 2019. "Trois évaluations d’actions de lutte contre les discriminations," Erudite Ph.D Dissertations, Erudite, number ph19-01 edited by Pascale Petit, December.
    6. Mathieu Bunel & Samuel Gorohouna & Yannick L’Horty & Pascale Petit & Catherine Ris, 2019. "Ethnic Discrimination in the Rental Housing Market: An Experiment in New Caledonia," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 42(1), pages 65-97, January.
    7. Benoît SCHMUTZ & Grégory VERDUGO, 2020. "Do Politicians Shape the Electorate ? Evidence from French Municipalities," Working Papers 2020-18, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics, revised 01 Apr 2021.
    8. Chareyron, Sylvain & L'Horty, Yannick & Mbaye, Souleymane & Petit, Pascale, 2023. "Reducing ethnic discrimination through formal warning: Evidence from two combined field experiments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    9. S. Chareyron & S. Gorohouna & Y. L'Horty & C. Ris, 2019. "Seeking for tipping point in the housing market: evidences from a field experiment," Post-Print hal-03387703, HAL.
    10. Flage, Alexandre, 2018. "Ethnic and gender discrimination in the rental housing market: Evidence from a meta-analysis of correspondence tests, 2006–2017," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 251-273.
    11. Auspurg, Katrin & Schneck, Andreas & Thiel, Fabian, 2020. "Different samples, different results? How sampling techniques affect the results of field experiments on ethnic discrimination," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 0.
    12. Alexandre Flage, 2018. "Ethnic and Gender Discrimination in Rental Housing Market, Evidence from Meta-Analysis of Correspondence Tests, 2006-2017," Working Papers 2018-04, CRESE.
    13. Sylvain Chareyron & Yannick L'Horty & Pascale Petit & Souleymane Mbaye, 2019. "Mesurer l’impact d’un courrier d’alerte sur les discriminations liées à l’origine," Working Papers hal-02333840, HAL.
    14. Mathieu Bunel & Yannick L'Horty & Loic Du Parquet & Pascale Petit, 2017. "Les Discriminations Dans L'Acces Au Logement A Paris : Une Experience Controlee," Working Papers halshs-01521995, HAL.
    15. Ghekiere, Abel & Verhaeghe, Pieter-Paul, 2022. "How does ethnic discrimination on the housing market differ across neighborhoods and real estate agencies?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    16. Sander WAGNER & Ivaylo D. PETEV, 2019. "The Economic Penalty of Terrorism: Increase in Discrimination Against Arabs and Muslims after Paris Attacks," Working Papers 2019-22, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    17. Gaddis, S. Michael, 2018. "An Introduction to Audit Studies in the Social Sciences," SocArXiv e5hfc, Center for Open Science.
    18. Sandra Schneemann & Hendrik Scholten & Christian Deutscher, 2018. "The Impact of Age on Nationality Bias: Evidence from Ski Jumping," Papers 1808.03804, arXiv.org.
    19. Dean, Jason & Steele, Marion, 2022. "Income decline, financial insecurity, landlord screening and renter mobility," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    20. Schmutz, Benoît & Verdugo, Gregory, 2023. "Do elections affect immigration? Evidence from French municipalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    21. Julie Le Gallo & Yannick L'Horty & Loïc du Parquet & Pascale Petit, 2019. "Discrimination in Access to Housing: A Test on Urban Areas in Metropolitan France," Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE), issue 513, pages 27-45.
    22. Sylvain Chareyron & Yannick L’Horty & Pascale Petit, 2023. "Cream skimming and discrimination in access to medical care: A field experiment," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(8), pages 1868-1883, August.
    23. Élisabeth Tovar & Mathieu Bunel, 2023. "Fairness of the First-Come, First-Served rule on the rental housing market: answers from a hypothetical survey experiment," EconomiX Working Papers 2023-31, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    24. Arthur Acolin, 2019. "Housing trajectories of immigrants and their children in France: Between integration and stratification," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(10), pages 2021-2039, August.
    25. Bonick, Matthew & Farfán-Vallespín, Antonio, 2016. "On the origin and consequences of racism," The Constitutional Economics Network Working Papers 02-2016, University of Freiburg, Department of Economic Policy and Constitutional Economic Theory.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Discrimination; Immigrants; Field experiment; Housing market;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination
    • R2 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis

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