Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/209709 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Citation: 
[Journal:] The Journal of Politics [ISSN:] 1541-1338 [Volume:] 81 [Issue:] 1 [Publisher:] University of Chicago Press [Place:] Chicago, Ill. [Year:] 2019 [Pages:] 127-141
Publisher: 
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill.
Abstract: 
Racial discrimination persists despite established antidiscrimination laws. A common government strategy to deter discrimination is to publicize the law and communicate potential penalties for violations. We study this strategy by coupling an audit experiment with a randomized intervention involving nearly 700 landlords in New York City and report the first causal estimates of the effect on rental discrimination against blacks and Hispanics of a targeted government messaging campaign. We uncover discrimination levels higher than prior estimates indicate, especially against Hispanics, who are approximately 6 percentage points less likely to receive callbacks and offers than whites. We find suggestive evidence that government messaging can reduce discrimination against Hispanics but not against blacks. The findings confirm discrimination’s persistence and suggest that government messaging can address it in some settings, but more work is needed to understand the conditions under which such appeals are most effective.
Subjects: 
government communication
discrimination
political economy of race
behavioral policy compliance
field experiment
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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