The Colour of a Free Ride | Zendy

Redzo Mujcic | Zendy; Paul Frijters | Zendy

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The Colour of a Free Ride

Author(s) -

Redzo Mujcic,

Paul Frijters

Publication year - 2020

Publication title -

the economic journal

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 4.683

H-Index - 160

eISSN - 1468-0297

pISSN - 0013-0133

DOI - 10.1093/ej/ueaa090

Subject(s) - white (mutation) , natural experiment , privilege (computing) , advertising , race (biology) , patriotism , test (biology) , business , computer security , law , computer science , political science , sociology , politics , statistics , gender studies , paleontology , biochemistry , chemistry , mathematics , biology , gene

We use a natural field experiment to estimate the causal effect of race on discretionary favours in the marketplace. Test customers are randomly assigned to board public buses with no money to purchase a fare, leaving the bus driver to voluntarily decide whether to offer them a free ride. Based on 1,552 transactions, we uncover strong evidence of racial bias: bus drivers were twice as willing to let white testers ride free as black testers (72% vs. 36% of the time). Signals of wealth and patriotism improve minority testers’ outcomes. Our results show that white privilege extends to unregulated daily interactions.

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