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Journal ArticleDOI

Identification, screening and stereotyping in labour market discrimination

TL;DR: In this article, a microeconomic model of hiring and pay decisions by an employer is presented, where the authors integrate both responses in a model of uncertainty in decision-making, leading to less stereotyping of people and hence less discrimination, and social identification with an ingroup, inducing more reliance on stereotypic perceptions and prejudices, and hence more discrimination against an outgroup.
Abstract: According to social-psychological research, feelings of uncertainty in decision-making evoke two opposite responses: (i) reduction of uncertainty by information search, leading to less stereotyping of people, and hence less discrimination; (ii) social identification with an ingroup, inducing more reliance on stereotypic perceptions and prejudices, and hence more discrimination against an outgroup. We integrate both responses in a microeconomic model of hiring and pay decisions by an employer. Increasing competition in the product market makes the employer feel more uncertain about his profits, but also raises the opportunity cost of screening expenditures. This elicits substitution of ingroup identification for screening expenditures, and hence enhances discrimination.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper argued that competition might be good for ethical behavior in the long run, because it promotes growth and raises incomes, and higher incomes raise the willingness to pay for ethical behaviour, but may also change what people believe to be ethical for the better.
Abstract: Explanations of unethical behavior often neglect the role of competition, as opposed to greed, in assuring its spread. Using the examples of child labor, corruption, excessive' executive pay, corporate earnings manipulation, and commercial activities by universities, this paper clarifies the role of competition in promoting censured conduct. When unethical behavior cuts costs, competition drives down prices and entrepreneurs' incomes, and thereby reduces their willingness to pay for ethical conduct. Nonetheless, I suggest that competition might be good for ethical behavior in the long run, because it promotes growth and raises incomes. Higher incomes raise the willingness to pay for ethical behavior, but may also change what people believe to be ethical for the better.

343 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse the role of employers as "institutional" factors in the creation of segmentation in the labour market, focusing on the sectors of catering, cleaning and security as low-skilled service sector providers.
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of employers as “institutional” factors in the creation of segmentation in the labour market. Industrial structure defines segments of the labour market (the employer) based on the nature of demand, and with the impact on the individual workers or groups based on their personal characteristics.Design/methodology/approach – Empirical work is within the Dublin labour market, which experienced the largest increase in availability of migrant workers under immigration policies of the Celtic Tiger state. Focused on the sectors of catering, cleaning and security as low‐skilled service sector providers, the analysis is based on 24 semi‐structured interviews with employers selected based on a database of a cross‐section of all employers in the selected sectors in Dublin.Findings – Semi‐structured interviews reinforce state policies as key institutional factor underlying migrant labour trends and experiences, but perspectives of the employers in low‐end ser...

14 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors developed a model of how those judgments form based on a theory of symbolic values, which depicts the interaction between two values, one associated with an inherited ethnic trait (nationality) and one with an endogenous achievement trait (income) and found that individuals with lower cognitive ability are predicted to invest more value on nationalism and to have hostile relations with immigrants.
Abstract: Interpersonal relations are shaped by the judgements associated with the social categories that individuals perceive in their social contacts. I develop a model of how those judgments form based on a theory of symbolic values. The model depicts the interaction between two values, one associated with an inherited ethnic trait (“nationality”) and one with an endogenous achievement trait (“income”). Individuals with lower cognitive ability are predicted to invest more value on nationalism and to have hostile relations with immigrants. Multiple equilibria are possible, and better schooling may eliminate equilibria with xenophobia. Econometric findings based on data from three large surveys corroborate the predictions derived from the theoretical model.

14 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined the effect of transitioning from welfare to full-time employment on a variety of measures of subjective well-being for a sample of long-term welfare recipients in British Columbia and New Brunswick who participated in the Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP).
Abstract: I examine the effect of transitioning from welfare to full‐time employment on a variety of measures of subjective well‐being for a sample of long‐term welfare recipients in British Columbia and New Brunswick who participated in the Self‐Sufficiency Project (SSP). Individuals randomly assigned to the treatment group could receive a generous time‐limited earnings supplement if they found full‐time work. I use random assignment to estimate the local average treatment effect of working full time on well‐being. For the complier subpopulation, I find large, positive effects on subjective well‐being that persist over the longer run for New Brunswick and through roughly three years for British Columbia. Policy changes made during the experiment may explain the provincial differences. De l’aide sociale au travail et bien‐etre subjectif : l’exemple d’un echantillon aleatoire et controle. Dans cet article, j’etudie les effets du passage de l’aide sociale au travail a temps plein sur un ensemble de mesures de bien‐etre subjectif au sein d’un panel d’allocataires sociaux de longue duree ayant participe au Projet d’autosuffisance (PAS) en Colombie‐Britannique et au Nouveau‐Brunswick. Les participants au projet, integres au groupe experimental de facon aleatoire, pouvaient beneficier de complements de revenus genereux et limites dans le temps a condition de trouver un emploi a temps plein. Afin d’evaluer l’effet de traitement moyen local du travail a plein temps sur le bien‐etre, j’ai utilise la technique d’affectation aleatoire. Pour le sous‐groupe ayant retrouve un travail a temps plein, les effets positifs sur le bien‐etre sont importants et persistent de maniere durable au Nouveau‐Brunswick tandis qu’ils ne durent qu’environ trois ans en Colombie‐Britannique. Les changements de politiques au cours de l’experience peuvent expliquer les differences entre les deux provinces.

3 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider industries where the equally skilled workers/members of firm-specific monopoly unions can be grouped according to different reservation wages, and they show that, in absence of active antidiscrimination policy, discriminatory wage contracts across groups of employees may emerge, in equilibrium, under either oligopoly or a perfectly competitive product market.
Abstract: We consider industries where the equally skilled workers/members of firm-specific monopoly unions can be grouped according to different reservation wages. We show that, in absence of active antidiscrimination policy, discriminatory wage contracts across groups of employees may emerge, in equilibrium, under either oligopoly or a perfectly competitive product market. We subsequently propose that to combat wage discrimination a benevolent policy maker should under either market structure subsidize the employment of the low reservation wage group. The reason is that taxing wage discrimination, as an alternative antidiscrimination policy, always entails a welfare loss relative to the no policy/wage discrimination status quo.

3 citations

References
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Book
01 Jan 1957
TL;DR: Cognitive dissonance theory links actions and attitudes as discussed by the authors, which holds that dissonance is experienced whenever one cognition that a person holds follows from the opposite of at least one other cognition that the person holds.
Abstract: Cognitive dissonance theory links actions and attitudes It holds that dissonance is experienced whenever one cognition that a person holds follows from the opposite of at least one other cognition that the person holds The magnitude of dissonance is directly proportional to the number of discrepant cognitions and inversely proportional to the number of consonant cognitions that a person has The relative weight of any discrepant or consonant element is a function of its Importance

22,553 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a set of reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles, but full text can be found on the Internet Archive.
Abstract: This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

8,513 citations

Book
01 Jan 1977
TL;DR: Men and Women of the Corporation: The Population, Industrial Supply Corporation: Setting Roles And Images as discussed by the authors, Men and women of the corporation: The population, the setting roles and images, the players and the stage.
Abstract: * Introduction The Players And The Stage * Men and Women of the Corporation: The Population * Industrial Supply Corporation: The Setting Roles And Images * Managers * Secretaries * Wives Structures And Processes * Opportunity * Power * Numbers: Minorities and Majorities Understanding The Action * Contributions to Theory: Structural Determinants of Behavior in Organizations * Contributions to Practice: Organizational Change, Affirmative Action, and the Quality of Work Life * Afterword to the 1993 Edition

7,680 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider how identity, a person's sense of self, affects economic outcomes and incorporate the psychology and sociology of identity into an economic model of behavior, and construct a simple game-theoretic model showing how identity can affect individual interactions.
Abstract: This paper considers how identity, a person's sense of self, affects economic outcomes. We incorporate the psychology and sociology of identity into an economic model of behavior. In the utility function we propose, identity is associated with different social categories and how people in these categories should behave. We then construct a simple game-theoretic model showing how identity can affect individual interactions. The paper adapts these models to gender discrimination in the workplace, the economics of poverty and social exclusion, and the household division of labor. In each case, the inclusion of identity substantively changes conclusions of previous economic analysis.

4,825 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the second series of experiments, it was found that the maximum joint profit independent of group membership did not affect significantly the manner in which the subjects divided real pecuniary rewards; however, maximum profit for own group did affect the distribution of rewards; and the clearest effect on the subject's attempt to achieve a maximum difference between the ingroup and the outgroup even at the price of sacrificing other "objective" advantages.
Abstract: The aim of the studies was to assess the effefcs of social categorization on intergroup behaviour when, in the intergroup situation, neither calculations of individual interest nor previously existing attitudes of hostility could have been said to have determined discriminative behaviour against an outgroup. These conditions were satisfied in the experimental design. In the first series of experiments, it was found that the subjects favoured their own group in the distribution of real rewards and penalities in a situation in which nothing but the variable of fairly irrelevant classification distinguished between the ingroup and the outgroup. In the second series of experiments it was found that: 1) maximum joint profit independent of group membership did not affect significantly the manner in which the subjects divided real pecuniary rewards; 2) maximum profit for own group did affect the distribution of rewards; 3) the clearest effect on the distribution of rewards was due to the subjects' attempt to achieve a maximum difference between the ingroup and the outgroup even at the price of sacrificing other ‘objective’ advantages. The design and the results of the study are theoretically discussed within the framework of social norms and expectations and particularly in relation to a ‘generic’ norm of outgroup behaviour prevalent in some societies.

4,523 citations