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For whom does the phone (not) ring?: Discrimination in the rental housing market in Delhi, India

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  • Saugato Datta
  • Vikram Pathania

Abstract

Using an audit experiment carried out on of India's largest real estate websites, we document striking variations between landlords' treatment of upper-caste Hindus, Other Backward Castes, Scheduled Castes, and Muslims. We find strong evidence of discrimination against Muslim applicants, both in terms of probability of being contacted and the number of contacts, relative to upper-caste Hindu (UC) applicants, in the rental housing market in Delhi and its largest suburbs.

Suggested Citation

  • Saugato Datta & Vikram Pathania, 2016. "For whom does the phone (not) ring?: Discrimination in the rental housing market in Delhi, India," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-55, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2016-55
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    Cited by:

    1. Mathieu Bunel & Samuel Gorohouna & Yannick L’Horty & Pascale Petit & Catherine Ris, 2019. "Ethnic Discrimination in the Rental Housing Market: An Experiment in New Caledonia," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 42(1), pages 65-97, January.
    2. Aashish Gupta & Diane Coffey, 2020. "Caste, Religion, and Mental Health in India," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 39(6), pages 1119-1141, December.
    3. Pramod Kumar Sur & Masaru Sasaki, 2020. "Measuring Customer Discrimination: Evidence From the Professional Cricket League in India," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(4), pages 420-448, May.
    4. Mathieu Bunel & Samuel Gorohouna & Yannick L’horty & Pascale Petit & Catherine Ris, 2017. "Ethnic Discrimination in the Rental Housing Market: An Experiment in New Caledonia," Post-Print hal-04264978, HAL.
    5. Borooah, Vani, 2021. "Prejudice: Xenophobia, Homophobia, and Patriarchy in the World," MPRA Paper 113065, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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