How to detect racial discrimination in hiring

[tevarin]

http://www.slate.com/id/2183053/

A recent example was carried out by economists Sendhil Mullainathan and Marianne Bertrand. They generated about 5,000 fake job applications and used a computer to add, at random, distinctively black or white names. The employers who received the

Comments

[thisgirliknow]

I don't know if that's necessarily a racial discrimination issue. I was on your side fully until I heard about a study that was done that Will Segal told me about, thinking about it particularly economically

[subjectivity]

I thought of that too but I don't know, I think the full study would be worth a read in order to see if they controlled for that effect. In the abstract they say

[thisgirliknow]

Will mentioned that too-- that those who got interviews were hired on a much more "fair" basis with regard to names, it was getting the interview that was the problem

[subjectivity]

this link mentions some follow up studies that may be what Will was citing:
http://liberalorder.typepad.com/the_liberal_order/2004/09/racism_and_dist.html

Also I'd like to remove my comment that economic discrimination is "just as bad" as racism. It's not. But it's still bad.

[subjectivity]

by the way, I googled "Lakisha and Jamal" and found a bunch of commentary and several more recent studies you might find interesting. The study cited in Slate is actually from 2003. (for some reason the Slate author subbed in the name LaTonya, which I'm trying to not read too much into, but the study name used Lakisha.)

[tevarin]

Weird. I wonder if the Slate author just forgot, or if there's a specific Lakisha or LaTonya they were remembering?

[mleg]

Rather than use my name to any unfair advantage, I think I'll remain a stay-at-home mom for now.

[tevarin]

Yes, but can you convince Greg to follow the same path ?