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Field Experiment Tests for Discrimination against Hispanics in the U.S. Rental Housing Market

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  • Andrew Hanson
  • Michael Santas

Abstract

This article tests for discrimination against Hispanics in the U.S. rental housing market using e‐mail correspondence with landlords advertising units online. We divide Hispanics into two groups: those that appear assimilated into American culture and recent immigrants. We find little difference in the treatment of assimilated Hispanics and whites; however, Hispanics we portray as recent immigrants receive less favorable treatment with margins of net discrimination as large as 6.89% of landlords. We also find discrimination varies significantly at the region level and by the ethnic composition of neighborhoods.

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  • Andrew Hanson & Michael Santas, 2014. "Field Experiment Tests for Discrimination against Hispanics in the U.S. Rental Housing Market," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(1), pages 135-167, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:81:y:2014:i:1:p:135-167
    DOI: 10.4284/0038-4038-2012.231
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    2. Bricongne, Jean-Charles & Meunier, Baptiste & Pouget, Sylvain, 2023. "Web-scraping housing prices in real-time: The Covid-19 crisis in the UK," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(PB).
    3. Sugasawa, Takeru & Harano, Kei, 2023. "A field experiment on discrimination against foreigners in the rental housing market in Japan examining the 23 wards of Tokyo," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    4. Chan, Eric W. & Fan, Yulian, 2023. "Housing discrimination in the low-income context: Evidence from a correspondence experiment," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(PA).
    5. Melo, Vitor & Rocha, Hugo Vaca Pereira & Sigaud, Liam & Warren, Patrick L. & Gaddis, S. Michael, 2024. "Understanding Discrimination in College Admissions: A Field Experiment," SocArXiv 5ctms_v1, Center for Open Science.
    6. 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.
    7. 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).
    8. Melo, Vitor & Rocha, Hugo Vaca Pereira & Sigaud, Liam & Warren, Patrick L. & Gaddis, S. Michael, 2024. "Understanding Discrimination in College Admissions: A Field Experiment," SocArXiv 5ctms, Center for Open Science.
    9. 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).
    10. Boeing, Geoff, 2019. "Online Rental Housing Market Representation and the Digital Reproduction of Urban Inequality," SocArXiv pqgw7_v1, Center for Open Science.
    11. Zanoni, Wladimir & Díaz, Lina, 2024. "Discrimination against migrants and its determinants: Evidence from a Multi-Purpose Field Experiment in the Housing Rental Market," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    12. Hua Zan & Jessie X. Fan & Benvin Lozada, 2024. "The economic disparity between Hispanic and non‐Hispanic White households: An analysis of middle‐class achievement," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 83(1), pages 93-107, January.
    13. Riser, Quentin H. & Rouse, Heather L. & Dorius, Cassandra J., 2023. "Association between early income variation around poverty thresholds, income trajectories, and birth, child, and family characteristics," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    14. Gaddis, S. Michael, 2018. "An Introduction to Audit Studies in the Social Sciences," SocArXiv e5hfc_v1, Center for Open Science.
    15. 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.
    16. Andrew Hanson & Zackary Hawley, 2024. "Chinese exclusion? Agent response in the market for owner‐occupied housing," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 52(5), pages 1340-1372, September.

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