Racial discrimination in government services remains largely unexamined despite evidence of bias among local election officials. This randomized field experiment investigates responsiveness to white, black, and Hispanic applicants seeking public housing assistance.
Key Finding:
Unlike prior research suggesting equal treatment between Black and White applicants, the study finds limited evidence of responsiveness discrimination against Hispanics.
Email Tone Disparity:
Hispanic housing applicants were 20 percentage points less likely to be greeted by name compared to their Black and White counterparts. This tone disparity appeared somewhat reduced in more diverse geographic areas but did not depend on whether a public housing official was Hispanic.
Methodological Contribution:
This research highlights the unique characteristics of street-level bureaucrats working within large urban bureaucracies that deliver essential social services.
| Does Race Affect Access to Government Services? An Experiment Exploring Street-level Bureaucrats and Access to Public Housing was authored by Katherine Levine Einstein and David Glick. It was published by Wiley in AJPS in 2017. |
