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Detecting Discrimination in Audit and Correspondence Studies

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  • David Neumark

Abstract

Audit studies testing for discrimination have been criticized because applicants from different groups may not appear identical to employers. Correspondence studies address this criticism by using fictitious paper applicants whose qualifications can be made identical across groups. However, Heckman and Siegelman (1993) show that group differences in the variance of unobservable determinants of productivity can still generate spurious evidence of discrimination in either direction. This paper shows how to recover an unbiased estimate of discrimination when the correspondence study includes variation in applicant characteristics that affect hiring. The method is applied to actual data and assessed using Monte Carlo methods.

Suggested Citation

  • David Neumark, 2010. "Detecting Discrimination in Audit and Correspondence Studies," NBER Working Papers 16448, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16448
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination

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