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Can information help Lakisha and Jamal find housing? Evidence from a low-cost online experiment of landlords

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  • Murchie, Judson
  • Pang, Jindong
  • Schwegman, David J.

Abstract

Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the federal government, as well as local and state governments and non-profit organizations, have attempted to eliminate housing discrimination by enforcing fair housing laws. This strategy, however, requires prospective tenants to actively report discrimination. In this paper, we conduct a randomized field experiment to examine if being sent a public service announcement (PSA) about fair housing laws affects a landlord's propensity to discriminate against prospective black tenants in the early stages of the rental housing process. We find landlords who are sent a PSA are more likely to respond to black clients one day and one week after treatment, though the effect appears to dissipate quickly.

Suggested Citation

  • Murchie, Judson & Pang, Jindong & Schwegman, David J., 2021. "Can information help Lakisha and Jamal find housing? Evidence from a low-cost online experiment of landlords," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:90:y:2021:i:c:s0166046221000727
    DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2021.103712
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hanson, Andrew & Hawley, Zackary, 2011. "Do landlords discriminate in the rental housing market? Evidence from an internet field experiment in US cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2-3), pages 99-114, September.
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    3. David Neumark & Ian Burn & Patrick Button, 2016. "Experimental Age Discrimination Evidence and the Heckman Critique," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 303-308, May.
    4. David Neumark, 2018. "Experimental Research on Labor Market Discrimination," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(3), pages 799-866, September.
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 991-1013, September.
    6. Hanson, Andrew & Hawley, Zackary & Taylor, Aryn, 2011. "Subtle discrimination in the rental housing market: Evidence from e-mail correspondence with landlords," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 276-284.
    7. James J. Heckman, 1998. "Detecting Discrimination," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 101-116, Spring.
    8. Benjamin Edelman & Michael Luca & Dan Svirsky, 2017. "Racial Discrimination in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from a Field Experiment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 1-22, April.
    9. Yinger, John, 1986. "Measuring Racial Discrimination with Fair Housing Audits: Caught in the Act," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 881-893, December.
    10. Phelps, Edmund S, 1972. "The Statistical Theory of Racism and Sexism," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(4), pages 659-661, September.
    11. David Schwegman, 2019. "Rental Market Discrimination Against Same-Sex Couples: Evidence From a Pairwise-Matched Email Correspondence Test," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 250-272, March.
    12. Fang, Albert H. & Guess, Andrew M. & Humphreys, Macartan, 2019. "Can the Government Deter Discrimination? Evidence from a Randomized Intervention in New York City," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 81(1), pages 127-141.
    13. Murchie, Judson & Pang, Jindong, 2018. "Rental housing discrimination across protected classes: Evidence from a randomized experiment," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 170-179.
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. 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).
    3. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Housing discrimination; Field experiment; Correspondence audit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • 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
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets

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