A new GLO Discussion Paper finds for the US that firms statistically discriminate workers based on race when employer learning is asymmetric.

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GLO Discussion Paper No. 569, 2020

Testing for Asymmetric Employer Learning and Statistical Discrimination – Download PDF
by Ge, Suqin & Moro, Andrea &  Zhu, Beibei

GLO Fellow Suqin Ge

Author Abstract: We test if firms statistically discriminate workers based on race when employer learning is asymmetric. Using data from the NLSY79, we find evidence of asymmetric employer learning. In addition, employers statistically discriminate against non-college educated black workers at time of hiring. We also find that employers directly observe most of the productivity of college graduates at hiring and learn very little over time about these workers.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers). Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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