CPR Working Paper Series No. 67
Why Do Real Estate Brokers Continue to Discriminate? Evidence from the 2000 Housing Discrimination Study
Bo Zhao, Jan Ondrich and John Yinger
March 2005
Abstract:
This paper studies racial and ethnic discrimination in discrete choices by
real estate brokers using national audit data from the 2000 Housing
Discrimination Study. It uses a fixed effects logit model to estimate the
probability that discrimination occurs and to study the causes of
discrimination. The data set makes it possible to control for auditors’
actual demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, along with the
characteristics assigned for the purposes of the audit. The study finds that
discrimination continues to be strong but also documents a downward trend in
both the scope and incidence of discrimination since 1989. The estimations
also identify both brokers’ prejudice and white customers’ prejudice as
causes of discrimination.
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