Poster Paper:
Does High School Sport Participation Reduce Discrimination in the Labor Market
Saturday, November 4, 2017
Regency Ballroom (Hyatt Regency Chicago)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Discrimination contributes to gaps in employment betweenwhites and African Americans and increases racial inequality. Young African Americans, ages 18 to 19, are twice more likely to be unemployed compared to whites (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2015). This project is the first study to rely on an experimental design to examine whether participation in high school sports affects labor market discrimination based on raceand gender. A handful of studies have tried to find résumé characteristics, such as quality and socio-economic status, that reduce racial discrimination in the labor market, with little to nosuccess. This study uses a correspondence audit in whichfictional résumés are sent to real job openings, callbacks arerecorded, and any differences in callback rates are considered evidence of discrimination. All résumé attributes are randomlyassigned and race is signaled through the applicants’ names. Theaudit study will focus on 18-19 year olds, who are more likely toreport high school activities on résumés, and will run in threelarge American cities: Chicago, Dallas, and New York.Callbacks will be recorded through email accounts and virtual voicemails. A pilot conducted in October 2016 finds preliminaryevidence that sports participation reduces racial and gender-based discrimination. There is also evidence of some heterogeneity in sports participation; participation reduces discrimination differently by sport.
