Racial Screening on the Big Screen? Evidence from the Motion Picture Industry

Liang Zhong, Angela Crema and M. Daniele Paserman

No 33186, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We develop a model of discrimination that allows us to interpret observed differences in outcomes across groups, conditional on passing a screening test, as taste-based (employer,) statistical, or customer discrimination. We apply this framework to investigate the nature of non-white underrepresentation in the US motion picture industry. Leveraging a novel data set with racial identifiers for the cast of 7,000 motion pictures, we show that, conditional on production, non-white movies exhibit higher average revenues and a smaller variance. Our findings can be rationalized in the context of our model if non-white movies are held to higher standards for production.

JEL-codes: J15 J70 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul and nep-lma
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