Social Barriers to Cooperation: Experiments on the Extent and Nature of Discrimination in Peru

We present a series of experiments to understand the nature and extent of discrimination in urban Lima, Peru. The experiments exploit varying degrees of information on performance and personal characteristics as people sort into groups to test for statistical versus taste-based discrimination. This allows us to examine the nature of discrimination. Our sample is similar to the racial and socio-economic diversity of young adults in urban Lima. This allows us to look at the extent of discrimination. We use a unique method to measure race, along four racial dimensions common in Peru, and find that race is clearly observable. This gives us confidence that we can examine discrimination based on race. While behavior is not correlated with personal, socio-economic or racial characteristics, people do use personal characteristics to sort themselves into groups. Beauty is a robust predictor of being a desirable group member as is being a woman. Being unattractive or looking indigenous makes one less desirable and looking white increases oneâ??s desirability. Interestingly, indigenous subjects are three times more likely to be classified as unattractive, suggesting that beauty might mask discrimination. We find that once information on performance is provided, almost all evidence of discrimination is eliminated, except in the most-preferred group. The evidence in these cases is consistent with taste-based, rather than statistical, discrimination.

The Consequences of Being Different - Statistical Discrimination and the School-to-Work Transition

When information about the true abilities of job-seekers and applicants are hard to get, statistical discrimination by employers can be an efficient strategy in the hiring and wage setting process. But statistical discrimination can induce costs, if labor relations cannot be terminated in the short term and wages are fixed over a certain period. In this paper we use a unique longitudinal survey that follows the PISA 2000 students in their educational and work-life career. We test whether deviance in the PISA test scores from what one would have predicted based on observable characteristics, influences the probability to succeed in the transition from compulsory school into a firm-based apprenticeship and whether it can explain differences of the individual performances during training. Our results suggest that hard-to-get information plays a significant role in the transition, but not always in a symmetric manner.statistical discrimination, school-to-work transition, PISA

Testing Theories of Discrimination: Evidence from "Weakest Link"

In most settings, it is difficult to measure discrimination, and even more challenging to distinguish between competing theories of discrimination (taste-based versus information-based). Using contestant voting behavior on the television game show Weakest Link, one can in principle empirically address both of these questions. On the show, contestants answer questions and vote off other players, competing for a winner-take-all prize. In early rounds, strategic incentives encourage voting for the weakest competitors. In later rounds, the incentives reverse, and the strongest competitors become the logical target. Controlling for other observable characteristics including the number of correct answers thus far, both theories of discrimination predict that in early rounds, excess votes will be made against groups targeted for discrimination. In later rounds, however, taste-based models predict continued excess votes, whereas statistical discrimination predicts fewer votes against the target group. Empirically, I find some evidence of information-based discrimination towards Hispanics (i.e., other players perceive them as having low ability) and taste-based discrimination against older players (i.e., other players treat them with animus). There is little in the data to suggest discrimination against women and Blacks.

Ethnic Discrimination in Germany's Labour Market: A Field Experiment

This paper studies ethnic discrimination in Germany's labour market with a correspondence test. To each of 528 advertisements for student internships we send two similar applications, one with a Turkish-sounding and one with a German-sounding name. A German name raises the average probability of a callback by about 14 percent. Differential treatment is particularly strong and significant at smaller firms at which the applicant with the German name receives 24 percent more callbacks. Discrimination disappears when we restrict our sample to applications including reference letters which contain favourable information about the candidate’s personality. We interpret this finding as evidence for statistical discrimination.correspondence test, hiring discrimination, ethnic discrimination

Information-theoretic analysis of multivariate single - cell signaling responses using SLEMI

Mathematical methods of information theory constitute essential tools to describe how stimuli are encoded in activities of signaling effectors. Exploring the information-theoretic perspective, however, remains conceptually, experimentally and computationally challenging. Specifically, existing computational tools enable efficient analysis of relatively simple systems, usually with one input and output only. Moreover, their robust and readily applicable implementations are missing. Here, we propose a novel algorithm to analyze signaling data within the framework of information theory. Our approach enables robust as well as statistically and computationally efficient analysis of signaling systems with high-dimensional outputs and a large number of input values. Analysis of the NF-kB single - cell signaling responses to TNF-a uniquely reveals that the NF-kB signaling dynamics improves discrimination of high concentrations of TNF-a with a modest impact on discrimination of low concentrations. Our readily applicable R-package, SLEMI - statistical learning based estimation of mutual information, allows the approach to be used by computational biologists with only elementary knowledge of information theory

Group Reputation and the Dynamics of Statistical Discrimination

Previous literature on statistical discrimination explained stereotypes based on the existence of multiple equilibria, in which principals have different self-confirming beliefs about different social groups (Arrow, 1973; Coate and Loury, 1993). However, the literature has not provided an account of where the principals' prior beliefs come from. Moreover, the static models dominating the literature do not offer relevant information about the dynamic paths that lead to each equilibrium. This paper develops a dynamic version of statistical discrimination in which economic players' forward-looking behaviors determine the dynamic paths to each equilibrium. Defining ``Group Reputation'' as the objective information shared by principals regarding the average characteristics of agents belonging to each group, this study identifies groups as advantaged or disadvantaged, based on their initial reputation states, and provides conditions by which a group can switch from one reputation state to another. By understanding this dynamic structure of reputation evolution, we examine the strategy that well-coordinated principals may voluntarily utilize to maximize their profits, helping the group in the reputation trap to improve its skill investment rate.Statistical Discrimination; Group Reputation; Reputation Trap; Forward-Looking Behavior

Avoiding Discrimination through Causal Reasoning

Recent work on fairness in machine learning has focused on various statistical discrimination criteria and how they trade off. Most of these criteria are observational: They depend only on the joint distribution of predictor, protected attribute, features, and outcome. While convenient to work with, observational criteria have severe inherent limitations that prevent them from resolving matters of fairness conclusively. Going beyond observational criteria, we frame the problem of discrimination based on protected attributes in the language of causal reasoning. This viewpoint shifts attention from "What is the right fairness criterion?" to "What do we want to assume about the causal data generating process?" Through the lens of causality, we make several contributions. First, we crisply articulate why and when observational criteria fail, thus formalizing what was before a matter of opinion. Second, our approach exposes previously ignored subtleties and why they are fundamental to the problem. Finally, we put forward natural causal non-discrimination criteria and develop algorithms that satisfy them.Comment: Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 30, 2017 http://papers.nips.cc/paper/6668-avoiding-discrimination-through-causal-reasonin

Gender Inequality in the Croatian Labour Market - Legal and Economic Aspects

The normative analysis of solutions contained in the Croatian labor-regulative system prima facie does not find flagrant deficiences of legal provisions or their significant discrepancies from comparative national systems of European states or international labour standards, but anti-discrimination measures in the conditions of inadequate level of court protection and ineffi ciency of labour inspectors in protecting substance rights often result in further refl ections of discrimination arising from the anti-discrimination basis. The gender analysis of the labor market in Croatia suffers from a lack of statistical information and research, limiting analysis and leading to the use of prior estimates and hypothesis. Therefore, scant statistical information and research about women in the labour market hinders their effectiveness with policymakers in the implementation of government procurement laws or policies that promote women in the labour community. In the circumstances of negative transitional changes, significant impact of the Church on all spheres of the social and political life, unemployment, poverty and disallowed practice that makes a women undesirabile work force, a prevention of multiple forms of discrimination and genuine affirmation of the equal distribution of gender roles in social and family life has to become a permanent imperative in the society that is pursuing values and principles of equality. The paper discusses women’s position in the Croatian labour market within transitional context, especially from legal, economic and political point of view. The pupose of this paper is to promote women position in the labour market as equal part of labour force.gender inequality, labour market, gender roles, legal and economic aspects

Discrimination and Workers' Expectations

The paper explores the role of workers' expectations as am original explanation for the puzzling long run persistence of discrimination against some minorities in the labor market. A game of incomplete information is presented, showing that ex ante identical groups of workers may be characterized by unequal outcomes in equilibrium due to their different beliefs, even though discriminatory tastes and statistical discrimination by employers have disappeared. Wrong beliefs of being discriminated against are self-confirming in this circumstance, being the ultimate cause of a lower percentage of promotions which supports these wrong beliefs.discrimination, workers' expectations, self-confirming beliefs

Acoustic mechanisms of a species-based discrimination of the chick-a-dee call in sympatric black-capped (Poecile atricapillus) and mountain chickadees (P. gambeli)

Previous perceptual research with black-capped and mountain chickadees has demonstrated that these species treat each other’s namesake chick-a-dee calls as belonging to separate, open-ended categories. Further, the terminal dee portion of the call has been implicated as the most prominent species marker. However, statistical classification using acoustic summary features suggests that all note-types contained within the chick-a-dee call should be sufficient for species classification. The current study seeks to better understand the note-type based mechanisms underlying species-based classification of the chick-a-dee call by black-capped and mountain chickadees. In two, complementary, operant discrimination experiments, both species were trained to discriminate the species of the signaler using either entire chick-a-dee calls, or individual note-types from chick-a-dee calls. In agreement with previous perceptual work we find that the D note had significant stimulus control over species-based discrimination. However, in line with statistical classifications, we find that all note-types carry species information. We discuss reasons why the most easily discriminated note-types are likely candidates to carry species-based cues.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe