Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/284361 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
IWH Discussion Papers No. 12/2023
Version Description: 
This version: 04.03.2024
Publisher: 
Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), Halle (Saale)
Abstract: 
Although explicit discrimination in access to social programs is typically prohibited, more subtle forms of discrimination prior to the formal application process may still exist. Unveiling this phenomenon, we provide the first causal evidence of discrimination against migrants seeking child care. We send emails from fictitious parents to > 18, 000 early child care centers across Germany, inquiring about slot availability and application procedures. Randomly varying names to signal migration background, we find that migrants receive 4.4 percentage points fewer responses. Replies to migrants contain fewer slot offers, provide less helpful content, and are less encouraging. Exploring mechanisms using three additional treatments, we show that discrimination is stronger against migrant boys. This finding suggests that anticipated higher effort required for migrants partly drives discrimination, which is also supported by additional survey and administrative data. Our results highlight that difficult-to-detect discrimination in the pre-application phase could hinder migrants' access to universal social programs.
Subjects: 
child care
discrimination
field experiment
inequality
program take-up
JEL: 
C93
J13
J15
J18
I24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.