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Racial Discrimination and Housing Outcomes in the United States Rental Marke

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Christensen

    (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

  • Ignacio Sarmiento-Barbieri

    (University of Los Andes)

  • Christopher Timmins

    (Duke University)

Abstract

We report evidence on discriminatory behavior from the largest correspondence study conducted to date in the rental housing market. Using more than 25,000 interactions with rental property managers across the 50 largest U.S. cities, the study reveals that African American and Hispanic/LatinX renters continue to face discriminatory constraints in the majority of U.S. cities although there are important regional differences. Stronger discriminatory constraints on renters of color (particularly African Americans) are also associated with higher levels of residential segregation and larger gaps in intergenerational income mobility. Using matched evidence on the actual rental outcomes at the properties in our experiment, we show that correspondence study measurements of discrimination do indeed predict actual outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Christensen & Ignacio Sarmiento-Barbieri & Christopher Timmins, 2022. "Racial Discrimination and Housing Outcomes in the United States Rental Marke," Working Papers 152, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    • Handle: RePEc:aoz:wpaper:152
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    File URL: https://rednie.eco.unc.edu.ar/files/DT/152.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Prottoy A. Akbar & Sijie Li Hickly & Allison Shertzer & Randall P. Walsh, 2025. "Racial Segregation in Housing Markets and the Erosion of Black Wealth," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 107(1), pages 42-54, January.
    2. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Maggie R Jones & Sonya R Porter, 2020. "Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States: an Intergenerational Perspective [“Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants in the US Over Two Centuries,”]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(2), pages 711-783.
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    2. Gagnon, Nickolas & Nosenzo, Daniele, 2025. "Discrimination Preferences," EconStor Preprints 323979, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    3. Victoria Gregory & Julian Kozlowski & Hannah Rubinton, 2022. "The Impact of Racial Segregation on College Attainment in Spatial Equilibrium," Working Papers 2022-036, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, revised 27 Nov 2024.
    4. Walter Sosa-Escudero & Maria Victoria Anauati & Wendy Brau, 2022. "Poverty, Inequality and Development Studies with Machine Learning," Advanced Studies in Theoretical and Applied Econometrics, in: Felix Chan & László Mátyás (ed.), Econometrics with Machine Learning, chapter 0, pages 291-335, Springer.
    5. Hector Blanco & Jaehee Song, 2025. "Discrimination Against Housing Vouchers: Evidence from Online Rental Listings," CESifo Working Paper Series 11920, CESifo.
    6. David A. Hoffman & Anton Strezhnev, 2022. "Leases as Forms," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 90-134, March.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; 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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