Public Opinion, Racial Bias, and Labor Market Outcomes

Kaveh Majlesi, Silvia Prina () and Paul Sullivan
Additional contact information
Silvia Prina: Northeastern University

No 15753, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The effect of negative shifts in public opinion on the economic lives of minorities is unknown. We study the role of racial bias in the U.S. labor market by investigating sudden changes in public opinion about Asians following the anti-Chinese rhetoric that emerged with the COVID-19 pandemic, and associated changes in employment status and earnings. Using Current Population Survey (CPS) data from January 2019 to May 2021, we find that, unlike other minorities, Asians who worked in occupations or industries with a higher likelihood of face-to-face interactions before the pandemic were more likely to become unemployed afterwards. Consistent with a role for public opinion affecting labor market outcomes, we find that the effects are larger in magnitude in strongly Republican states, where anti-Asian rhetoric might have had more influence. Additionally, we show that, while widespread along the political spectrum, negative shifts in views of Asians were much stronger among those who voted for President Trump in 2016 and those who report watching Fox News channel.

Keywords: minorities; public opinion; racial bias; unemployment; earnings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D70 D91 J15 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2022-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published - published in: Nature Human Behaviour, 2024, 8, 1493–1505

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp15753.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Public Opinion, Racial Bias, and Labor Market Outcomes (2022)
Working Paper: Public Opinion, Racial Bias, and Labor Market Outcomes (2022)
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:iza:izadps:dp15753

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().