IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/glodps/678.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How many correspondence tests are enough to detect discrimination among single agents? A longitudinal study on the Belgian real estate market

Author

Listed:
  • Verhaeghe, Pieter-Paul
  • Van der Bracht, Koen

Abstract

Correspondence tests have been used by scholars and civil rights organizations to measure ethnic discrimination. In contrast to research testing covering a whole market through many discrimination tests, litigation testing typically targets a single agent, which can only be tested through a very low number of tests per agent. This low number of tests poses serious methodological challenges to disentangle systematic discrimination from random treatment. This study examines from a purely statistical point of view how many discrimination tests per single agent are needed to convincingly proof discrimination. We collected unique longitudinal data about 114 real estate agents, which were tested through 10 repeated pairwise matched correspondence tests. It appears that 10 or more tests are needed per realtor to detect discrimination with a high degree of certainty. The required number of tests per agent depends on the pattern of discrimination among the agent under study, the expected non-response rate and the desired degree of certainty.

Suggested Citation

  • Verhaeghe, Pieter-Paul & Van der Bracht, Koen, 2020. "How many correspondence tests are enough to detect discrimination among single agents? A longitudinal study on the Belgian real estate market," GLO Discussion Paper Series 678, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:678
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/224764/1/GLO-DP-0678.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. P. A. Riach & J. Rich, 2002. "Field Experiments of Discrimination in the Market Place," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(483), pages 480-518, November.
    2. Zschirnt, Eva & Ruedin, Didier, 2016. "Ethnic discrimination in hiring decisions: A meta-analysis of correspondence tests 1990–2015," EconStor Preprints 142176, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    3. Kristof Heylen & Katleen Van den Broeck, 2016. "Discrimination and selection in the Belgian private rental market," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 223-236, March.
    4. Flage, Alexandre, 2018. "Ethnic and gender discrimination in the rental housing market: Evidence from a meta-analysis of correspondence tests, 2006–2017," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 251-273.
    5. Rich, Judy, 2014. "What Do Field Experiments of Discrimination in Markets Tell Us? A Meta Analysis of Studies Conducted since 2000," IZA Discussion Papers 8584, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Ondrich, Jan & Ross, Stephen L. & Yinger, John, 2000. "How Common is Housing Discrimination? Improving on Traditional Measures," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 470-500, May.
    7. Margery A. Turner & Stephen Ross & George C. Galster & John Yinger, 2002. "Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets: National Results from Phase 1 of the Housing Discrimination Study (HDS)," Working papers 2002-16, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    8. Stephen L. Ross & John Yinger, 2006. "Uncovering Discrimination: A Comparison of the Methods Used by Scholars and Civil Rights Enforcement Officials," American Law and Economics Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 562-614.
    9. David Neumark, 2018. "Experimental Research on Labor Market Discrimination," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(3), pages 799-866, September.
    10. Alexandre Flage, 2018. "Ethnic and Gender Discrimination in Rental Housing Market, Evidence from Meta-Analysis of Correspondence Tests, 2006-2017," Working Papers 2018-04, CRESE.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Flage, Alexandre, 2018. "Ethnic and gender discrimination in the rental housing market: Evidence from a meta-analysis of correspondence tests, 2006–2017," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 251-273.
    2. Auspurg, Katrin & Schneck, Andreas & Thiel, Fabian, 2020. "Different samples, different results? How sampling techniques affect the results of field experiments on ethnic discrimination," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 0.
    3. Gaddis, S. Michael, 2018. "An Introduction to Audit Studies in the Social Sciences," SocArXiv e5hfc, Center for Open Science.
    4. Gaddis, S. Michael & DiRago, Nicholas V., 2021. "Audit Studies of Housing in the United States: Established, Emerging, and Future Research," SocArXiv fn4ta, Center for Open Science.
    5. Alexandre Flage, 2018. "Ethnic and Gender Discrimination in Rental Housing Market, Evidence from Meta-Analysis of Correspondence Tests, 2006-2017," Working Papers 2018-04, CRESE.
    6. Mbaye, Souleymane & Bunel, Mathieu & L'Horty, Yannick & Petit, Pascale & Parquet, Loïc du, 2020. "Discriminations in the market for “Lemons”: A multicriteria correspondence test in France," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    7. Veit, Susanne & Arnu, Hannah & Stasio, Valentina Di & Yemane, Ruta & Coenders, Marcel, 2022. "The “Big Two” in Hiring Discrimination: Evidence From a Cross-National Field Experiment," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 48(2), pages 167-182.
    8. Ghekiere, Abel & Verhaeghe, Pieter-Paul, 2022. "How does ethnic discrimination on the housing market differ across neighborhoods and real estate agencies?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    9. Zhao, Bo & Ondrich, Jan & Yinger, John, 2006. "Why do real estate brokers continue to discriminate? Evidence from the 2000 Housing Discrimination Study," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 394-419, May.
    10. Auspurg, Katrin & Hinz, Thomas & Schmid, Laura, 2017. "Contexts and conditions of ethnic discrimination: Evidence from a field experiment in a German housing market," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 26-36.
    11. Carlsson, Magnus & Eriksson, Stefan, 2019. "Age discrimination in hiring decisions: Evidence from a field experiment in the labor market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 173-183.
    12. Eva Zschirnt, 2020. "Evidence of Hiring Discrimination Against the Second Generation: Results from a Correspondence Test in the Swiss Labour Market," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 563-585, June.
    13. Andrew Hanson & Zackary Hawley, 2023. "Restricted access: Real estate agent response to client race, ethnicity, gender, and side of market," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(4), pages 855-890, July.
    14. Gouveia, Filipe & Nilsson, Therese & Berggren, Niclas, 2020. "Religiosity and discrimination against same-sex couples: The case of Portugal's rental market," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    15. Vernby, Kåre & Dancygier, Rafaela, 2018. "Employer discrimination and the immutability of ethnic hierarchies," Working Paper Series 2018:17, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    16. Giovanni Busetta & Fabio Fiorillo & Giulio Palomba, 2021. "The impact of attractiveness on job opportunities in Italy: a gender field experiment," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(1), pages 171-201, April.
    17. Thijssen, Lex & Lancee, Bram & Veit, Susanne & Yemane, Ruta, 2021. "Discrimination against Turkish minorities in Germany and the Netherlands: field experimental evidence on the effect of diagnostic information on labour market outcomes," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 47(6), pages 1222-1239.
    18. Hannah Van Borm & Louis Lippens & Stijn Baert, 2022. "An Arab, an Asian, and a Black guy walk into a job interview: ethnic stigma in hiring after controlling for social class," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 22/1054, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    19. Sander WAGNER & Ivaylo D. PETEV, 2019. "The Economic Penalty of Terrorism: Increase in Discrimination Against Arabs and Muslims after Paris Attacks," Working Papers 2019-22, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    20. Hellyer, Joshua, 2021. "Homophobia and the home search: Rental market discrimination against same-sex couples in rural and urban housing markets," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    discrimination; discrimination tests; mid-p-value; longitudinal study; housing market; enforcement testing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General
    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)
    • R38 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:678. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/glabode.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/glabode.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.