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on Minorities Research (Ethnic, LGBTQ+, Disabilities) |
| By: | Anjali Adukia; Richard Hornbeck; Daniel Keniston; Ben Lualdi |
| Abstract: | We examine the social construction of race in the United States, from Reconstruction to the modern day, and show how this affects statistical differences across and within racial categories. During the Reconstruction era, people with the same light brown skin tones, recorded by the Freedman's Bank (1865-1874), were more likely racialized as White or Mulatto in the 1870 Census if they were wealthier or literate. Racial assignment of descendants remained fluid through the 1940 Census. In modern data, self-reported race also varies with income and college completion among people with light brown skin tones. This endogenous racial assignment increases cross-race wealth gaps, which we show can be adjusted using sub-samples with data on skin tone or ancestry. Endogenous race also induces selection when controlling for race that, for example, attenuates the relationship between wealth and skin tone. |
| Keywords: | social construction of race, skin color, racialization, reconstruction, nlsy, statistical adjustments |
| JEL: | J15 J31 J71 K38 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12812 |
| By: | Platt, Lucinda; Rasul, Imran; Tiwari, Pratyush |
| Abstract: | How does the majority population view the societal contributions, economic outcomes and opportunities available to specific ethnic minority groups, root causes of ethnic disadvantage, and policy solutions to address them? We answer these questions in the UK context, a multi-ethnic society where some minorities outperform the majority in economic outcomes, while others underperform. We use an online survey fielded to 3200 White British individuals, into which we embed a survey experiment that presents respondents with narratives about the economic success or disadvantage of specific minority groups. The experiment was purposefully implemented in the run up to the 2024 UK General Election, that saw the rise of populist anti-immigration parties. We find that even in such charged times, light-touch narratives can correct majority misperceptions of the economic outcomes of specific minorities, and shift views on policies to address ethnic inequalities. Views on the opportunities available to minorities and root causes of disadvantage, such as luck or effort, are harder to shift irrespective of the minority outgroup. By considering perceptions towards their ingroup, we document that narratives about the economic success of minorities can shift majority perceptions in ways consistent with zero sum thinking. Given strong political differences in perceptions of minorities, we examine heterogeneous responses to the narratives by political leaning. Narrative treatments can shift perceptions, including those of right-leaning individuals, with zero sum mindsets being independent of political leaning. We conclude by examining how perceptions across domains shape the reasoning behind support for policies targeted to specific minorities to address ethnic inequalities. |
| JEL: | D8 H1 J15 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20106 |
| By: | Benjamin V. Rosa |
| Abstract: | Using restricted Census business records, I explore how banning affirmative action in state contracting affects minority- and women-owned business enterprises (MWBEs). I find that ending affirmative action led MWBE contractors to gradually downsize, with the most pronounced reductions in force experienced by Black-owned businesses and larger MWBEs. Despite these workforce changes, existing MWBEs were no more likely to shut down than other businesses. New MWBEs were relatively less common after a state’s ban, highlighting how bans can shift the demographic composition of new contractors. A calibrated model suggests bans are equivalent to considerable reductions in MWBE productivity and scrap values. |
| Keywords: | Affirmative action, public contracting, minority- and women-owned businesses |
| JEL: | J15 J16 H57 L25 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:26-41 |
| By: | Andreas Haller; Stefan Staubli |
| Abstract: | The central trade-off for designing Disability Insurance (DI) is between providing insurance to those in need while maintaining incentives to work. This paper develops a novel revealed-preference approach to identify the insurance value of DI benefits. We show that comparing the DI take-up response to a change in benefits versus a change in wages identifies the insurance value. Implementing our framework in Canada, we estimate that increasing DI benefits by $1 creates an additional disincentive cost of $0.60 but creates an insurance value of $2.20. Thus, our approach suggests that DI benefits are not overly generous in the Canadian context. |
| JEL: | H53 H55 J14 J21 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35438 |
| By: | Campana, Chiara (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Koning, Pierre (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Lindeboom, Maarten (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | While evidence points at potentially strong effects of stricter screening and tightening eligibility criteria for Disability Insurance (DI), little is known about their targeting effects: are screened-out workers also those with better future health and more ability to work? To shed light on this, we employ Regression-Discontinuity-in-Time regressions that compare the long-term outcomes of DI application cohorts just before and after a reform in the Netherlands. The reform led to stricter screening in the sickness period before DI application and reduced the number of applicants by 33%. Up to 18 years after application, we find persistently lower survival rates and lower employment rates of post-reform cohorts. Using detailed information on the future chronic diseases of these cohorts and the application diagnoses, we next construct indices capturing long-term expected survival (a “Survival Health Index†, SHI) and long-term employment prospects (a “Work Ability Index†, WAI). We find that the self-screening induced by the reform was stronger for applicants with work disabilities than for health disabilities. This is largely due to a decline in applications of workers with mental and musculoskeletal health conditions . |
| Keywords: | Disability Insurance (DI), health, mental health, screening, targeting |
| JEL: | H2 I3 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18799 |
| By: | Duha T. Altindag; Reem El Cheikh Taha; John M. Nunley; R. Alan Seals |
| Abstract: | Automation affects public budgets through wages and the tax base, and also through inflows into social insurance. We estimate the effect of industrial robot exposure on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) applications using confidential commuting-zone data and a shift-share design that instruments U.S. exposure with earlier European robot diffusion. One additional robot per 1, 000 workers lowers applications by about 8 per 100, 000 working-age residents, with the largest declines among workers aged 55 to 64. Employment-to-population ratios do not fall in exposed commuting zones, which weighs against broad local displacement as the sole explanation. A year's flow of averted applications corresponds to about \$3.4 billion in expected SSDI and Medicare obligations, or about \$17, 000 per robot-year, in present value rather than realized cash. Displacement adds to social-insurance costs, whereas robot exposure here reduces them, an offset that assessments built only on displacement leave unpriced. |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2607.02892 |
| By: | Fahmida Khatun; Syed Yusuf Saadat; Afrin Mahbub; Anindita Islam; Safrina Kamal |
| Abstract: | Social protection is essential in any society to mitigate vulnerabilities. Even though Bangladesh has made great strides in addressing deprivation, a significant proportion of the population still lives in poverty or is at risk, dealing with a variety of issues relating to age, gender, disability, and climate shocks. This study evaluates budgetary needs and potential resource mobilisation to assess the feasibility of universal social protection in Bangladesh. Drawing on insights from Key Informant Interview (KII) and secondary data from the International Labour Organization (ILO), Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), and other sources, the analysis focuses on five key programmes identified in the social safety net budget including Old Age Allowance (OAA), Allowance for Widows, Destitute, and Deserted Women, Open Market Sales (OMS), Disability Allowance and Education Stipend, and Mother and Child Benefit (MCBP). |
| Keywords: | Social Protection, Universal Protection, Universal Pension, Child Benefit, Social Security, Resource Mobilisation, Poverty Reduction, Social Safety, Bangladesh Welfare, ILO Framework |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pdb:report:81 |
| By: | Couture, Victor; Dingel, Jonathan; Green, Allison; Handbury, Jessie |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether demographic preferences explain income segregation in shared spaces. To distinguish preferences over demographic composition from preferences over other venue characteristics, we study venue choices within business chains. We find two notable regularities: preferences for high-income co-patrons are similar across racial groups, and racial homophily does not vary by income. These demographic preferences are economically large, explain much of the cross-group variation in exposure to high-income co-patrons, and correlate with movers' neighborhood choices. |
| Keywords: | Homophily; Preference estimation; Segregation; Smartphone data |
| JEL: | C55 D12 J1 L8 R2 R4 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19904 |
| By: | Folke, Olle; Rickne, Johanna |
| Abstract: | This paper describes sexual harassment risks from two groups of perpetrators in Swedish nationally representative survey data. We find that both women and men face elevated risks of intraorganizational sexual harassment from colleagues or manager when working in occupations dominated by the opposite sex. In contrast, they face elevated risks of extraorganizational harassment from outside groups like patients, customers, or clients when working in women-dominated occupations. Amounts of interpersonal contacts with potential perpetrators appears to be a relevant mechanism behind these patterns: gender minorities in occupations have more workplace interactions with individuals of the opposite sex, and workers in women-dominated occupations have more interactions with outside groups. The results also suggest that gender norms on occupation choice further contribute to the victimization of gender minorities at the hands of both perpetrator groups. |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20091 |
| By: | Neil Ferguson; Lame Ungwang |
| Abstract: | Farmer–herder conflicts across West Africa are conventionally attributed to competition over land and water. Yet, identity – ethnic difference and outsider status – features prominently in qualitative accounts and in the peacebuilding programming that targets these conflicts. Because occupation and identity overlap closely in the field, observational data cannot easily distinguish these accounts. We test this experimentally, using a pre-registered vignette experiment among 1, 765 farming households located at the Sierra Leone–Guinea border. We randomize the counterpart’s identity while holding their occupation and the economic terms of an everyday exchange fixed. We find clear evidence of group-based discrimination: over a third of respondents always buy from their economic ingroup, even when doing so would mean paying more in the purchase scenario. However, this discrimination is not widened or heightened by the ethnic or national identity of the counterpart. Neither nationality nor tribe cues move purchase behavior or stated social acceptance: estimates are close to zero, and equivalence tests rule out effects at the lower bound of those documented in the intergroup-bias literature. The results suggest that the economic identity divide between farmers and herders is more salient than ethnic or national identity, with implications for where social-cohesion programming is best directed. |
| Keywords: | ethnic identity, farmer-herder conflict, intergroup bias, sierra leone, taste-based discrimination, vignette experiment |
| JEL: | C93 D74 D91 J15 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:459 |
| By: | Ravina, Enrichetta |
| Abstract: | I find that beauty, race, age, and personal characteristics affect lender decisions, once credit quality, employment history, homeownership, and other hard financial information are accounted for. Beautiful applicants are 1.54% more likely to get a loan, pay similar interest rates than average- looking borrowers, but default more often, consistent with taste-based discrimination. Blacks are significantly less likely to get a loan (-2.3%), pay higher rates than Whites, but are more likely to default, consistent with statistical discrimination. Blacks with more highly racially prejudiced lenders face lower funding probability and higher rates, despite having similar default probabilities as other applicants. |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20154 |
| By: | Lee, Youngsun (University of Maryland); Liu, Jing (University of Maryland); Penner, Emily (University of California, Irvine) |
| Abstract: | Little research examines whether the alternatives to suspension reduce racial/ethnic discipline disparities. Using unusually rich administrative data from a large district in the South, we investigate how schools use a range of disciplinary actions and the racial/ethnic gaps in their use. School leaders may respond to discipline incidents with a variety of guidance-based and punitive actions, but most commonly apply a single punitive action. Moreover, non-exclusionary alternatives are applied unequally; among students involved in the same fight, White students are more likely to lose privileges as their harshest consequence, while Black students are more likely to receive suspensions or be reported to a school resource officer. Our results highlight that alternatives to suspensions can themselves be sources of racial/ethnic inequality. |
| Keywords: | school discipline, office discipline referrals, racial/ethnic differences, differential processing |
| JEL: | I2 J7 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18806 |
| By: | Ioannides, Yannis; Ngai, Liwa Rachel |
| Abstract: | We approach the literature on housing and inequality from two angles. One is the impact of unequal endowments on housing. The second is the "memberships" inequality associated with neighborhoods, namely, households' location in a geographic and social context. We elaborate on these two angles of inequality and focus on three distinctive features of housing: consumption, capital and location. For owner-occupants, capital and consumption are bundled together in a single good. For both renters and owner-occupants, housing consumption inequality, access to good neighborhoods, and housing wealth follow from unequal endowments. Housing can propagate inequality by enabling owner-occupants to use it as collateral for other investments, or secure higher returns to human capital investments through the better schools in better neighborhoods. We use this approach to analyse key aspects of housing and inequality, paying special attention to the impacts of racial discrimination and segregation. |
| Keywords: | Inequality; housing consumption; Housing wealth; housing location |
| JEL: | R3 E2 D3 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19907 |
| By: | Fontenay, Sébastien; Gobbi, Paula Eugenia; Goñi, Marc |
| Abstract: | Fertility in sub-Saharan Africa is the highest in the world. We showcase a driver of this exceptionally high fertility which has been largely overlooked by demographers and economists: inheritance customs. We develop a theory of inheritance under subsistence agriculture, where households face economic incentives to limit fertility to avoid dividing land into inefficiently small parcels. Consequently, fertility is higher where inheritance is transmitted to a single heir (impartible) than where it is divided equally among all children (partible). We test this prediction by linking deep-rooted inheritance customs for more than 800 ethnic groups with modern demographic surveys covering 24 countries. Exploiting ancestral borders in a spatial Regression Discontinuity Design, we show that belonging to an ethnic group with impartible inheritance increases fertility by around one child per woman and that fertility differences are larger in lands subject to indivisibilities than in lands suited for cultivating labor-intensive crops. |
| Keywords: | Fertility; Inheritance; Sub-saharan africa |
| JEL: | J10 K11 O10 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20275 |
| By: | Xavier Lambin; Emil Palikot |
| Abstract: | On a large French ridesharing platform, new minority drivers earn 11.6% less revenue than otherwise similar nonminority drivers; the gap nearly vanishes as they accumulate reviews. Reviews drive the convergence: when a railway strike exogenously raised demand and sped up review accumulation, minority entrants gained the most. We explain the pattern with an estimated model of passenger choice and driver career concerns. Passengers hold overly pessimistic priors about minority entrants - expecting substantially lower quality before the ride than they report after it. As a result, minority drivers cut introductory prices and exert extra effort to overturn those beliefs quickly. Counterfactuals show the cost of incorrect priors is high, and the reputation system strictly benefits minority drivers. |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2607.05627 |
| By: | Andreas Makoto Fukuda Andersen; Gwen-Jiro Clochard; Guillaume Hollard; Andreas Kotsadam |
| Abstract: | People pay to discriminate. We replicate the price-of-prejudice paradigm of Hedegaard and Tyran (2018) in Japan and test whether brief cooperative contact with an outgroup member reduces the willingness to pay (WTP) for same-ethnicity coworkers. In a pre-registered laboratory experiment at the University of Osaka (N = 164 Japanese subjects), participants first performed a real-effort task, were then randomly paired with either a Japanese or an international student for a joint production round, and finally made incentivized binary choices between future partners whose name and productivity were revealed. Discrimination is clear in the data: one half of subjects choose the Japanese partner strictly more than 50% of the time in productivity-symmetric choices, and the average subject forgoes a productivity advantage of 2.4 envelopes, about 6% of pair earnings, to work with a Japanese rather than a foreign partner. Discrimination is also strongly price-sensitive, as in Hedegaard and Tyran (2018). The contact treatment reduces estimated WTP from 2.39 to 1.82, a 24% reduction, but the difference is statistically insignificant: the experiment validates the measurement paradigm while remaining underpowered for plausible effects of a single, brief contact intervention. In exploratory analyses we find that both men and women discriminate against women, at a price exceeding that of anti-foreign discrimination. |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:1317 |
| By: | Levy, Ro'ee; Mattsson, Martin |
| Abstract: | Social movements are associated with large societal changes, but evidence of their causal effects is limited. We study the effect of the MeToo movement on an important personal decision—reporting a sex crime to the police. Victims often do not report sex crimes due to the personal costs involved, but the reporting of sex crimes can have positive externalities and therefore, improve social welfare. Using a difference-in-differences strategy comparing sex crimes and non-sex crimes before and after the MeToo movement started, we find that the movement increased the number of sex crimes reported by approximately 10% and that the effect persisted until the end of our data, 15-27 months after the movement started. The result is confirmed using a triple-difference strategy comparing countries with strong and weak MeToo movements. Using detailed US data, we show that the MeToo movement not only increased reporting but also increased arrests for sexual assaults; and that in contrast to a common criticism of the movement, the effects are similar across racial and socioeconomic groups. Based on additional survey and crime data, we find that the increased reporting reflects a higher propensity to report sex crimes rather than an increase in the incidence of sex crimes. Our results demonstrate that social movements can rapidly and persistently change high-stakes decisions. |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20319 |
| By: | [Lukas Lehner] |
| Abstract: | This paper studies unemployed workers’ preferences for two widely debated social policy innovations often framed as rivals: a job guarantee and a basic income. It addresses how support for the two policies compares, how policy generosity shapes that support, and which groups are most supportive. Leveraging a randomized experiment in a representative survey of unemployed workers in Austria, the analysis documents broad support for both policies: consistently higher for guaranteed jobs though a majority support both policies. Increasing generosity raises support for each policy, and crossing a pay threshold above average unemployment benefits sharply increases willingness to accept guaranteed jobs. Support and willingness to participate are strongest among disadvantaged respondents, while a small socio-economically advantaged minority opposes both policies across generosity levels. The results suggest that guaranteed jobs and guaranteed income are better understood as complementary rather than opposing strategies for strengthening the welfare state in the twenty-first century. |
| Keywords: | job guarantee; universal basic income; unemployed workers; survey experiment; social policy preferences; welfare state attitudes |
| JEL: | I31 J68 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_1125 |
| By: | Anderson, Siwan; Du Plessis, Sophia; Parsa, Sahar; Robinson, James A. |
| Abstract: | Research on female political representation has tended to overlook the traditional role of women as leaders across many societies. Our study aims to address this gap by investigating the enduring influence of historical female political leadership on contemporary formal political representation in Africa. We test for this persistence by compiling two original datasets: one detailing female political leadership in precolonial societies and another on current female representation in local elections. Our findings indicate that ethnic groups historically allowing women in leadership roles in politics do tend to have a higher proportion of elected female representatives in today's formal local political institutions. We also observe that institutional, rather than economic, factors significantly shape the traditional political influence of women. Moreover, in accordance with historical accounts, we uncover evidence of a reversal of female political power due to institutional changes enforced by colonial powers. |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20235 |