New field experiments reveal how discrimination actually works in markets
Researchers have identified a critical gap in how we detect workplace and marketplace discrimination: standard experiments can't pinpoint whether unfair treatment stems from prejudice or statistical assumptions about groups. A new framework using field experiments that manipulate costs and information for decision-makers offers a way to distinguish between these mechanisms—crucial for designing policies that actually work.
Originaltitel: The Use of Field Experiments to Study Mechanisms of Discrimination
<p>This paper discusses social mechanisms of discrimination and reviews existing field experimental designs for their identication. We first explicate two social mechanisms proposed in the literature, animus-driven and statistical discrimination, to explain differential treatment based on ascriptive characteristics. We then present common approaches to study discrimination based on observational data and laboratory experiments, discuss their strengths and weaknesses, and elaborate why unobtrusive field experiments are a promising complement. However, apart from specific methodological challenges, well-established experimental designs fail to identify the mechanisms of discrimination. Consequently, we introduce a rapidly growing strand of research which actively intervenes in market activities varying costs and information for potential perpetrators to identify causal pathways of discrimination. We end with a summary of lessons learned and a discussion of challenges that lie ahead.</p>