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Do Real Estate Brokers Choose to Discriminate? Evidence from the 1989 Housing Discrimination Study
Author(s) -
Ondrich Jan,
Stricker Alex,
Yinger John
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.1002/j.2325-8012.1998.tb00109.x
Subject(s) - prejudice (legal term) , audit , real estate , housing discrimination , social psychology , ethnic group , white (mutation) , psychology , actuarial science , test (biology) , racism , business , finance , accounting , political science , law , paleontology , biochemistry , chemistry , biology , gene
Discrimination is systematic unfavorable treatment based solely on group membership. This study focuses on racial and ethnic discrimination in qualitative actions by real estate brokers, such as showing an advertised house, based on 2000 audits conducted in 1989. Each audit consists of a visit to a broker by a white person and a black or Hispanic person with equal qualifications. The audit data are used to measure the incidence of discrimination and to test hypotheses about its causes. The results reveal widespread discrimination and indicate that brokers discriminate based on personal prejudice and the prejudice of white clients.