Abstract
The discrimination literature treats outcomes as relative. But does a differential arise because agents discriminate against others—exophobia—or because they favour their own kind—endophilia? Using a field experiment that assigned graders randomly to students' exams that did/ did not contain names, we find favouritism but no discrimination by nationality, but neither by gender. We are able to identify these preferences under a wide range of behavioural scenarios regarding the graders. That endophilia dominates exophobia alters how we should measure discriminatory wage differentials and should inform the formulation of anti-discrimination policy.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1503–1527 |
Number of pages | 25 |
Journal | The Economic Journal |
Volume | 126 |
Issue number | 594 |
Early online date | 22 Feb 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Aug 2016 |
Keywords
- favouritism, discrimination, field experiment, economics of education