IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/feb/natura/00781.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Tradeoffs of Transparency: Measuring Discrimination When Subjects Are Told They Are in an Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Amanda Agan
  • Bo Cowgill
  • Laura Gee

Abstract

Correspondence audit studies have sent almost one-hundred-thousand resumes without informing subjects they are in a study - increasing realism, but without being fully transparent. We study the potential trade-offs of this lack of transparency by running a hiring field experiment with recruiters in a natural setting. One group of recruiters is told they are screening for an employer, and another is told they are part of an academic study. Job applicants' gender is randomly assigned. When subjects are told they are in an experiment, callback rates and willingness-to-pay for male candidates decline relative to female candidates (with no detectable change for female candidates). This suggests that telling subjects they are in an experiment would underestimate gender inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Amanda Agan & Bo Cowgill & Laura Gee, 2023. "The Tradeoffs of Transparency: Measuring Discrimination When Subjects Are Told They Are in an Experiment," Natural Field Experiments 00781, The Field Experiments Website.
    • Handle: RePEc:feb:natura:00781
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://s3.amazonaws.com/fieldexperiments-papers2/papers/00781.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary Charness & Anya Samek & Jeroen Ven, 2022. "What is considered deception in experimental economics?," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(2), pages 385-412, April.
    2. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 991-1013, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Freddi, Eleonora & Potters, Jan & Suetens, Sigrid, 2024. "The effect of brief cooperative contact with ethnic minorities on discrimination," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 64-76.

    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. Rose, Julia & Kirchler, Michael & Palan, Stefan, 2023. "Status and reputation nudging," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    2. Mujcic, Redzo & Frijters, Paul, 2013. "Still Not Allowed on the Bus: It Matters If You're Black or White!," IZA Discussion Papers 7300, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Anthony Edo & Nicolas Jacquemet & Constantine Yannelis, 2019. "Language skills and homophilous hiring discrimination: Evidence from gender and racially differentiated applications," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 349-376, March.
    4. Bertrand, Jérémie & Burietz, Aurore, 2023. "(Loan) price and (loan officer) prejudice," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 26-42.
    5. Bryson, Alex & Chevalier, Arnaud, 2015. "Is there a taste for racial discrimination amongst employers?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 51-63.
    6. John M. Nunley & Adam Pugh & Nicholas Romero & Richard Alan Seals, Jr., 2014. "Unemployment, Underemployment, and Employment Opportunities: Results from a Correspondence Audit of the Labor Market for College Graduates," Auburn Economics Working Paper Series auwp2014-04, Department of Economics, Auburn University.
    7. Henning Hermes & Philipp Lergetporer & Fabian Mierisch & Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold, 2023. "Discrimination on the Child Care Market: A Nationwide Field Experiment," Working Papers 225, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    8. Bart Capéau & Lieve Eeman & Steven Groenez & Miet Lamberts, 2012. "Standardised Scores as a Way to measure and Compare Discrimination Across Dimensions," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2012-022, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    9. Ganserer, Angelika, 2021. "Non-compliance with temporary agency work regulations: Initial evidence from Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-057, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    10. J. Michelle Brock & Ralph De Haas, 2023. "Discriminatory Lending: Evidence from Bankers in the Lab," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 31-68, April.
    11. Mathieu Bunel & Yannick L’Horty & Pascale Petit, 2016. "Discrimination based on place of residence and access to employment," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(2), pages 267-286, February.
    12. Mariano Bosch & M. Belen Cobacho, 2012. "Discrimination in second-hand consumer markets: evidence from a field experiment," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(17), pages 1727-1730.
    13. Dileni Gunewardena & Abdoulaye Seck, 2020. "Heterogeneity in entrepreneurship in developing countries: Risk, credit, and migration and the entrepreneurial propensity of youth and women," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 713-725, August.
    14. Utteeyo Dasgupta & Subha Mani & Prakarsh Singh, 2016. "Searching for religious discrimination among Anganwadi workers in India: An experimental investigation," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-69, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Emmanuel K. Yiridoe, 2021. "Fostering a culture of equity, diversity, and inclusion in the Canadian agricultural economics profession," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 69(1), pages 5-15, March.
    16. Poutvaara, Panu & Steinhardt, Max Friedrich, 2018. "Bitterness in life and attitudes towards immigration," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 471-490.
    17. Phillips, David C., 2017. "Landlords avoid tenants who pay with vouchers," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 48-52.
    18. Baert, Stijn & Picchio, Matteo, 2021. "A signal of (Train)ability? Grade repetition and hiring chances," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 867-878.
    19. Maresa Sprietsma, 2013. "Discrimination in grading: experimental evidence from primary school teachers," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 523-538, August.
    20. Yann Algan & Clément Malgouyres & Thierry Mayer & Mathias Thoenig, 2022. "The Economic Incentives of Cultural Transmission: Spatial Evidence from Naming Patterns Across France [‘Cultural assimilation during the age of mass migration’]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(642), pages 437-470.

    More about this item

    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:feb:natura:00781. 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: Francesca Pagnotta (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.fieldexperiments.com .

    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.