Abstract
A common concern in audit studies of racial discrimination is that names assigned to a particular race may also proxy for socioeconomic status. We conduct a correspondence study in Jamaica, a predominantly black middle-income country, and find that these concerns may be valid. The evidence from sending out over 1,000 résumés suggests employers prefer applicants perceived to be from high-income backgrounds. While qualifications are not independently important, those with names preferred by employers have a lower chance of being selected if they have high-quality résumés. The results suggest that class discrimination may matter as much as race discrimination.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
