Discrimination as Focal Point

Kaushik Basu ()
Additional contact information
Kaushik Basu: Cornell University

Chapter 6 in Handbook on Economics of Discrimination and Affirmative Action, 2023, pp 105-116 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter presents a theory of discrimination for markets in which there are complementarities between different tasks. It is shown that, in such a setting, even when groups are a priori identical, employers will end up discriminating against certain groups. Group discrimination serves the purpose of creating a focal point in a market game. In this model, the free market, far from curbing discrimination, nurtures it and thereby creates the need for purposive policy intervention. It is argued that, with the rise of technology, the problem of discrimination as focal point will get more acute and we will have to think in terms of affirmative action or a system of taxation and subsidy to support groups that get excluded.

Keywords: Discrimination; Focal point; Strategic complementarity; Affirmative action (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
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:spr:sprchp:978-981-19-4166-5_8

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9789811941665

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-19-4166-5_8

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().