Do Comparisons of Fictional Applicants Measure Discrimination When Search Externalities are Present? Evidence from Existing Experiments
研究发现，虚构申请人之间会相互影响，竞争更高质量申请人群体的申请人获得更多回电，这导致许多实验混淆了个人特征歧视与雇主对申请人群体构成的反应。调整后歧视测量值平均增加30%。
Researchers commonly measure discrimination by comparing responses to multiple fictional applicants sent to the same vacancy. I find evidence that these applications interact. Using data from several existing experiments, I find that applicants randomly assigned to compete against higher quality applicant pools receive more callbacks. In the presence of such spillovers, many experiments confound discrimination against an individual's characteristics with employers’ responses to the composition of the applicant pool. Under one reasonable set of assumptions, adjusting for applicant pool composition increases measured discrimination by 30% on average. Avoiding experimental designs that stratify treatment assignment by vacancy can eliminate such confounding.