American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
A Discrimination Report Card
American Economic Review
vol. 114,
no. 8, August 2024
(pp. 2472–2525)
Abstract
We develop an empirical Bayes ranking procedure that assigns ordinal grades to noisy measurements, balancing the information content of the assigned grades against the expected frequency of ranking errors. Applying the method to a massive correspondence experiment, we grade the race and gender contact gaps of 97 US employers, the identities of which we disclose for the first time. The grades are presented alongside measures of uncertainty about each firm's contact gap in an accessible report card that is easily adaptable to other settings where ranks and levels are of simultaneous interest.Citation
Kline, Patrick, Evan K. Rose, and Christopher R. Walters. 2024. "A Discrimination Report Card." American Economic Review, 114 (8): 2472–2525. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20230700Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- C11 Bayesian Analysis: General
- D22 Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- J71 Labor Discrimination