Labour market effects of urban riots: An experimental assessment

We measure the effects of urban riots on the labour market prospects of workers in the case of the French riots of 2007. The town of Villiers‐le‐Bel is our treatment unit while two other towns serve as control groups, Sarcelles and Enghien‐les‐Bains. Using the technique of correspondence testing, we are able to discern disparities in call‐back rates for fictitious candidates who respond to actual job postings over four dimensions: gender, ethnic origin, locality of residence (advantaged vs. disadvantaged), and the degree of media exposure during the riots. We implement an empirical approach to measure discrimination across several dimensions that integrates a set of relevant parameters into one unified system of equations. We find statistically significant negative estimates of a media exposure effect. People residing in the area which received negative publicity were 3.2 percentage points less likely to receive a callback. The group of workers who tend to be the most associated with the riots, namely, men of North African origin (at least in terms of perceptions), are the least affected by potential discrimination by region of residence, while women of French origin are the most affected.