Project

Does labour market discrimination survive under competition?

Code
12AM824N
Duration
01 October 2023 → 30 September 2026
Funding
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Promotor
Research disciplines
  • Social sciences
    • Work and organisational psychology
    • Labour and demographic economics
    • Design of experiments
    • Micro-based behavioural economics
    • Race and ethnic relations
Keywords
Competition Multilevel Discrimination
 
Project description

Previous empirical research has shown that labour market discrimination is pervasive but is less conclusive on how to tackle it. Economic theories can guide us in this effort. In particular, theoretical work suggests that product and labour market competition drive discrimination out of the labour market; discrimination should be low when market power is shared across many firms or when vacancies are difficult to fill. If discrimination ebbs with more competition, an important policy implication would be to stimulate competition. However, the current empirical research on the neutralising effect of competition on discrimination produces mixed results and has a few notable gaps. Those gaps include that product and labour market competition are looked at in isolation and that current methods ignore the multilayeredness of the data. The objectives of this project are to (a) broaden and deepen the knowledge about the link between competition and discrimination, (b) identify contextual factors influencing this link, and (c) distinguish competition interventions with the highest neutralising effect on discrimination. To this end, I will (i) conduct a systematic literature review of previous empirical research, (ii) apply multilevel meta-regression techniques to cross-national data, (iii) analyse granular multilevel regional data, and (iv) implement multi-phased vignette experiments in hiring, wage, promotion, and layoff decision settings.