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Ethnic Discrimination in Contacts with Public Authorities: A Correspondence Test Among Swedish Municipalities

Author

Listed:
  • Ahmed, Ali

    (Department of Management and Engineering)

  • Hammarstedt, Mats

    (Linnaeus University Centre for Discrimination and Integration Studies)

Abstract

We present a field experiment conducted in order to explore the existence of ethnic discrimination in contact with public authorities. Two fictitious parents, one with a Swedish-sounding name and one with an Arabic-sounding name, sent email inquiries to all Swedish municipalities asking for information about preschool admission for their children. Results show that the parents were treated differently by the municipalities since the individual with the Swedish-sounding name received significantly more responses that answered the question in the inquiry than the individual with the Arabic-sounding name. Also, the individual with the Swedish-sounding name received more warm answers than the individual with the Arabic-sounding name in the sense that the answer from the municipality started with a personal salutation. We conclude that ethnic discrimination is prevalent in public sector contacts and that this discrimination has implications for the integration of immigrants and their children.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahmed, Ali & Hammarstedt, Mats, 2019. "Ethnic Discrimination in Contacts with Public Authorities: A Correspondence Test Among Swedish Municipalities," Working Paper Series 1271, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1271
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Berggren, Niclas & Ljunge, Martin & Nilsson, Therese, 2023. "Immigrants from more tolerant cultures integrate deeper into destination countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 1095-1108.
    2. Mattie Mackenzie-Liu & David J. Schwegman & Leonard M. Lopoo, 2020. "Do Foster Care Agencies Discriminate Against Gay Couples? Evidence from a Correspondence Study," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 224, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
    3. Mattie Mackenzie‐Liu & David J. Schwegman & Leonard M. Lopoo, 2021. "Do Foster Care Agencies Discriminate Against Gay Couples? Evidence from a Correspondence Study," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(4), pages 1140-1170, September.
    4. Mikula, Stepan & Montag, Josef, 2023. "Roma and Bureaucrats: A Field Experiment on Ethnic and Socioeconomic Discrimination," IZA Discussion Papers 16218, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Berggren, Niclas & Ljunge, Martin & Nilsson, Therese, 2022. "Immigrants’ Tolerance and Integration into Society," Working Paper Series 1447, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    6. Štěpán Mikula & Josef Montag, 2022. "Roma and Bureaucrats: A Field Experiment in the Czech Republic," MUNI ECON Working Papers 2022-01, Masaryk University, revised Feb 2023.
    7. Adman, Per & Larsson Taghizadeh, Jonas, 2020. "Public officials’ treatment of minority clients," Working Paper Series 2020:12, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Discrimination; Subtle discrimination; Authorities; Field experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • H83 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Public Administration
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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