Journal of Economic Perspectives
ISSN 0895-3309 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7965 (Online)
Detecting Discrimination
Journal of Economic Perspectives
vol. 12,
no. 2, Spring 1998
(pp. 101–116)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
The evidence on discrimination produced from the audit method is examined. Audits survey the average firm and not the marginal firm which determines the level of market discrimination. Taken on its own terms, there is little evidence of labor market discrimination from audit methods. The validity of audit methods is critically dependent on unverified assumptions about equality across race/gender groups of the distributions of unobserved (by audit designers) productivity components acted on by firms and about the way labor markets work. Audits can find discrimination when none exists and can disguise it when it does.Citation
Heckman, James J. 1998. "Detecting Discrimination." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12 (2): 101–116. DOI: 10.1257/jep.12.2.101JEL Classification
- J71 Labor Discrimination
- J15 Economics of Minorities and Races; Non-labor Discrimination
There are no comments for this article.
Login to Comment