In-group and out-group biases in the marketplace: a field experiment during the World Cup

Sang-Hyun Kim and Fernanda L Lopez de Leon

Oxford Economic Papers, 2019, vol. 71, issue 3, 528-547

Abstract: We investigate the effects of group identity on discrimination by conducting an audit study in electronics markets in Brazil during the 2014 Brazil World Cup. Buyers’ group membership was identified by the shirts of the national football teams which were controlled in the experiment. We then exploit the outcomes of the WC matches, which arguably affected the salience of sellers’ group identity, to identify discrimination. Although we find that foreigners are overcharged, we do not detect discrimination against buyers wearing a rival team shirt. In contrast, we do detect in-group market favouritism towards buyers wearing the Brazil shirt when Brazil had won a match in the very recent past. Our analysis rejects the explanation that sellers’ behaviour was motivated entirely by economic profits. Instead, the results are more consistent with Becker’s taste-based discrimination theory and shed light on the ways in which in-group and out-group biases occur in market outcomes.

JEL-codes: C93 D71 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oep/gpy054 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:oup:oxecpp:v:71:y:2019:i:3:p:528-547.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Oxford Economic Papers is currently edited by James Forder and Francis J. Teal

More articles in Oxford Economic Papers from Oxford University Press Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().