The Dynamics of Discrimination: Theory and Evidence

Aislinn Bohren, Alex Imas and Michael Rosenberg

No 13113, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We model the dynamics of discrimination and show how its evolution can identify the underlying source. We test these theoretical predictions in a field experiment on a large online platform where users post content that is evaluated by other users on the platform. We assign posts to accounts that exogenously vary by gender and evaluation histories. With no prior evaluations, women face significant discrimination. However, following a sequence of positive evaluations, the direction of discrimination reverses: women's posts are favored over men's. Interpreting these results through the lens of our model, this dynamic reversal implies discrimination driven by biased beliefs.

Keywords: Discrimination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-gen
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP13113 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Dynamics of Discrimination: Theory and Evidence (2019)
Working Paper: The Dynamics of Discrimination: Theory and Evidence (2018)
Working Paper: The Dynamics of Discrimination: Theory and Evidence (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13113

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP13113

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CEPR ().