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Somebody that I want to know: The non-monotonic effect of personality information on ethnic and gender discrimination in the market for shared housing

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  • Moritz, Raphael
  • Manger, Christian

Abstract

We conducted a correspondence test to identify the determinants and extent of ethnic discrimination in the market for shared housing in Germany. We establish a link between information about an applicant’s personality and her performance in the housing market. About 2,000 fictitious applications with randomly assigned German-, or Turkish-sounding, female or male names, with or without additional personality information were sent to vacant room ads. While the callback rate for German-sounding names is 52 percent, it drops to 37 percent for Turkish-sounding names. Female applicants receive significantly more callbacks than their male counterparts. Additional personality information is particularly beneficial to the group with the highest callback rate (German females) and the group with the lowest callback rate (Turkish males). Thus, personality information reduce the ethnic gap between Turkish and German males, whereas the gap among females increases. A simple theoretical model shows that the strong effect of information on German females can be explained by aggregation over rooms that differ in market tightness. Moreover, advertisers who only accept applications of one particular gender discriminate significantly more against Turkish applicants.

Suggested Citation

  • Moritz, Raphael & Manger, Christian, 2022. "Somebody that I want to know: The non-monotonic effect of personality information on ethnic and gender discrimination in the market for shared housing," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhouse:v:57:y:2022:i:c:s105113772200016x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhe.2022.101842
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    1. Weichselbaumer, Doris & Riess, Hermann, 2024. "Discrimination in the Austrian Rental Housing Market: The Effect of Information Concerning First and Second-Generation Immigrant Status," IZA Discussion Papers 17403, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Shared housing; Ethnic discrimination; Field experiment; Gender discrimination; Personality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

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