IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceco/v105y2023ics2214804323000708.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Market segregation in the presence of customer discrimination

Author

Listed:
  • Amegashie, J.Atsu

Abstract

I consider a market with two firms, a minority group of customers, and a bigoted (racist, ethnocentric, xenophobic, or sexist) majority group of customers. There exists a Nash equilibrium with full segregation in which a low-price firm serves only the minority and a high-price firm serves only the majority. There is also a partial-integration equilibrium in which a high-price firm serves only the majority while a low-price firm serves both the minority and majority. Paradoxically, if the minority group is sufficiently big and the majority is sufficiently prejudiced, then both equilibria hold in the sense that the high-price firm does not lose customers, although its competitor charges a lower price. If the firms can price discriminate, none of these equilibria will hold. The partial integration equilibrium depends on how the prejudice of the majority is modelled.

Suggested Citation

  • Amegashie, J.Atsu, 2023. "Market segregation in the presence of customer discrimination," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:105:y:2023:i:c:s2214804323000708
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2023.102044
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214804323000708
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socec.2023.102044?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kevin Lang & Ariella Kahn-Lang Spitzer, 2020. "Race Discrimination: An Economic Perspective," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(2), pages 68-89, Spring.
    2. Harry J. Holzer & Keith R. Ihlanfeldt, 1998. "Customer Discrimination and Employment Outcomes for Minority Workers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(3), pages 835-867.
    3. Logan, Trevon D. & Parman, John M., 2017. "The National Rise in Residential Segregation," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 77(1), pages 127-170, March.
    4. Lisa D Cook & Maggie E C Jones & Trevon D Logan & David Rosé, 2023. "The Evolution of Access to Public Accommodations in the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(1), pages 37-102.
    5. Wright, Gavin, 2013. "Sharing the Prize: The Economics of the Civil Rights Revolution in the American South," Economics Books, Harvard University Press, number 9780674049338, Spring.
    6. Ricard Gil & Justin Marion, 2022. "Why Did Firms Practice Segregation? Evidence from Movie Theaters during Jim Crow," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(4), pages 635-663.
    7. Jonathan S. Leonard & David I. Levine & Laura Giuliano, 2010. "Customer Discrimination," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(3), pages 670-678, August.
    8. Ananat, Elizabeth Oltmans & Washington, Ebonya, 2009. "Segregation and Black political efficacy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(5-6), pages 807-822, June.
    9. Borooah, Vani K., 2001. "Racial bias in police stops and searches: an economic analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 17-37, March.
    10. Revital Bar & Asaf Zussman, 2017. "Customer Discrimination: Evidence from Israel," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(4), pages 1031-1059.
    11. William A. Darity & Patrick L. Mason, 1998. "Evidence on Discrimination in Employment: Codes of Color, Codes of Gender," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 63-90, Spring.
    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. J. Atsu Amegashie, 2023. "Market Segregation in the Presence of Customer Discrimination," CESifo Working Paper Series 10453, CESifo.
    2. Jones, Maggie E.C. & Logan, Trevon D. & Rosé, David & Cook, Lisa D., 2024. "Black-Friendly businesses in cities during the Civil Rights Era," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    3. Elert, Niklas & Lundin, Erik, 2020. "Gender and Climate Action," Working Paper Series 1332, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 18 Feb 2022.
    4. Ahmed, Ali & Hammarstedt, Mats, 2018. "Customer Discrimination in the Fast Food Market? Experimental Evidence from a Swedish University Campus," Working Paper Series 1232, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    5. Bernini, Andrea & Facchini, Giovanni & Tabellini, Marco & Testa, Cecilia, 2023. "Black Empowerment and White Mobilization: The Effects of the Voting Rights Act," CEPR Discussion Papers 18238, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. 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.
    7. Rinne, Ulf & Sonnabend, Hendrik & Wolters, Leonie, 2023. "Customer Discrimination and Ethnic Team Composition," IZA Discussion Papers 16315, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Stephen L. Ross, 2003. "What Is Known about Testing for Discrimination: Lessons Learned by Comparing across Different Markets," Working papers 2003-21, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2003.
    9. Boyd-Swan, Casey & Herbst, Chris M., 2017. "Racial and Ethnic Discrimination in the Labor Market for Child Care Teachers," IZA Discussion Papers 11140, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Kapoor, Sacha & Magesan, Arvind, 2019. "Having it easy: Discrimination and specialization in the workplace," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 153-173.
    11. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Bruno Decreuse & Morgane Laouénan & Alain Trannoy, 2016. "Customer Discrimination and Employment Outcomes: Theory and Evidence from the French Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 107-160.
    12. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Bruno Decreuse & Morgane Laouénan & Alain Trannoy, 2016. "Customer Discrimination and Employment Outcomes: Theory and Evidence from the French Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 107-160.
    13. Celeste K. Carruthers & Marianne H. Wanamaker, 2017. "Separate and Unequal in the Labor Market: Human Capital and the Jim Crow Wage Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(3), pages 655-696.
    14. Laouénan, Morgane, 2017. "‘Hate at First Sight’: Evidence of consumer discrimination against African-Americans in the US," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 94-109.
    15. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/2tlvpn71ve888pnch88db9g683 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Olivier Baguelin, 2005. "Understanding socio-demographic disparities in the labor market: the case for a motivation-based theory," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00196132, HAL.
    17. Collins, William J., 2021. "The Great Migration of Black Americans from the US South: A guide and interpretation," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    18. Trevon D. Logan, 2018. "Do Black Politicians Matter?," NBER Working Papers 24190, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Diego Gentile Passaro & Fuhito Kojima & Bobak Pakzad-Hurson, 2023. "Equal Pay for Similar Work," Papers 2306.17111, arXiv.org.
    20. Vu, Hoa & Green, Tiffany L. & Swan, Laura E.T., 2024. "Born on the wrong side of the tracks: Exploring the causal effects of segregation on infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    21. Daniel Aaronson & Brian J. Phelan, 2020. "The Evolution of Technological Substitution in Low-Wage Labor Markets," Working Paper Series WP-2020-16, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, revised 01 Mar 2022.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Customer discrimination; Majority; Markets; Minority; Segregation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

    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:eee:soceco:v:105:y:2023:i:c:s2214804323000708. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620175 .

    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.