Biomaterial Database

Is there evidence for statistical discrimination against ethnic minorities in hiring? Evidence from a cross-national field experiment. 2021

Lex Thijssen, and Marcel Coenders, and Bram Lancee

Department of Sociology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 14, 3584, CH Utrecht, the Netherlands. Electronic address: lexthijssen@gmail.com.

While statistical discrimination theory is often proposed as an important explanation for ethnic discrimination in hiring, research that empirically scrutinizes its underlying assumptions is scant. To test these assumptions, we combine data from a cross-national field experiment with secondary data indicative of the average labor productivity of ethnic communities. We find little evidence that adding diagnostic personal information reduces discrimination against ethnic minorities. Furthermore, we do not find an association between language similarity or the socioeconomic resources of the ethnic community and hiring discrimination. However, our findings show that discrimination is related to the socioeconomic development of the country of ancestry. Finally, the impact of these indicators of group productivity is generally not moderated by the amount of diagnostic personal information. Taken together, these findings question several core assumptions of statistical discrimination theory.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D010560	Personnel Selection	The process of choosing employees for specific types of employment. The concept includes recruitment.	Employee Recruitment,Employee Selection,Personnel Recruitment,Recruitment Activities,Activity, Recruitment,Employee Recruitments,Personnel Recruitments,Recruitment Activity,Recruitment, Employee,Recruitment, Personnel,Selection, Employee,Selection, Personnel
D005006	Ethnicity	A group of people with a common cultural heritage that sets them apart from others in a variety of social relationships.	Ethnic Groups,Nationality,Ethnic Group,Nationalities
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000091762	Ethnic and Racial Minorities	Socially constructed groups of people who differ in race, color or national, religious, or cultural origin from the dominant group and is often the majority population of the country in which they live. Ethnic minority groups generally share a common sense of identity and common characteristics such as language, religion, tribe, nationality, race, or a combination thereof.	Ethnic Minorities,Racial Minorities,Ethnic Minority,Minorities, Ethnic,Minorities, Racial,Minority, Ethnic,Minority, Racial,Racial Minority
D063505	Racism	Differential treatment or unequal access to opportunities, based on group membership such as origin or ethnicity.	Everyday Racism,Covert Racism,Racial Bias,Racial Discrimination,Racial Prejudice,Bias, Racial,Discrimination, Racial,Discriminations, Racial,Prejudice, Racial,Prejudices, Racial,Racial Discriminations,Racial Prejudices,Racism, Covert,Racism, Everyday