Testing for Discrimination in Rental Markets: Experimental Evidence from the UK

Martin Foureaux Koppensteiner, Tania Oliveira () and Nikitha Rohith ()
Additional contact information
Nikitha Rohith: Coventry University

No 15460, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In this paper we provide novel insights on discrimination against immigrants in the UK rental market. We conducted a randomized-controlled trial close to a real-world setting where inquiries to view a property were made via phone inquiries with rental agencies and immigration background was signalled through non-UK accents. We document substantial discrimination against non-UK applicants with non-UK applicants having a 13 percent lower chance of securing a viewing for a rental. We also document substantial heterogeneous effects, with much more pronounced effects in local areas with a lower share of immigrants. We find that the background of agency managers or the composition of agency staff does not attenuate the effects.

Keywords: discrimination; rental market; immigration; right-to-rent; UK (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 K37 R30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2022-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-exp, nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp15460.pdf (application/pdf)

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:iza:izadps:dp15460

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 ().