Of Chicken Entrails, Anthropology, and a Realistic Social Science.

Barbara Bergmann has advocated direct observation of market behavior by economists. There is a history of such activity in the area of labor market but that experimental work has mainly been conducted by noneconomists. We have followed the lead of these researchers and conducted audits of employment...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Feminist Economics Vol. 4; no. 3; pp. 187 - 192
Main Authors: Riach, Peter A., Rich, Judith
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Nov98
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:Barbara Bergmann has advocated direct observation of market behavior by economists. There is a history of such activity in the area of labor market but that experimental work has mainly been conducted by noneconomists. We have followed the lead of these researchers and conducted audits of employment hiring behavior, testing for discrimination on the basis of gender and sex. The technique involves sending matched pairs of job applications. Discrimination was found against female, Greek, and Vietnamese applicants. The paper recommends improvements in experimental design for future audits.