Research

Abstract: We document class disparities and discrimination in the incidence of police searches. Low-income motorists are more likely to be pursued in pretext stops and to be searched for contraband. Yet searches of low-income motorists are less likely to yield contraband. To isolate class-based discrimination, we show that motorists stopped in multiple vehicles are more likely to be searched when stopped in a vehicle that signals they are low-income. Overall contraband yield would increase if police did not engage in vehicle-based profiling. We provide suggestive evidence that lower hassle costs associated with arrests of low-income motorists help to explain trooper behavior. 

Abstract: In Brazil, firms' later hires are more likely to be nonwhite than early hires for the same job. We argue that this pattern reflects racial disparities in entrepreneurship and co-racial hiring: firms are more likely to hire from groups already well-represented at the firm, though with some decay. At entry, firms with white founders are about 30% less likely to hire nonwhite employees than comparable firms with nonwhite founders. After 400 hires, these firms nearly converge in their composition of subsequent hires. Yet few firms reach this scale. Within-firm racial differences in dismissal rates follow an analogous pattern. We provide suggestive evidence that referral hiring can at least in part account for our findings.

Abstract: A growing body of evidence shows that differences in firm-specific pay premiums account for a large share of the gender pay gap. This paper asks how a common form of pre-labor market skill specialization, college major, mediates access to high-paying firms, and what this means for the gender earnings gap. Using employer-employee tax data from Chile matched to educational records, we show that differences in college major account for more than two-thirds of the firm contribution to the gender earnings gap among college admits. Degrees in Technology, which are numerous, male-dominated, and associated with high firm premiums, drive these effects. 

Abstract: This paper examines whether job suburbanization caused declines in black employment rates from 1970 to 2000. I find that black workers are less likely than white workers to work in observably similar jobs that are located further from the central city. Using evidence from establishment relocations, I find that this relationship at least in part reflects the causal effect of job location. At the local labor market level, I find that job suburbanization is associated with substantial declines in black employment rates relative to white employment rates. Evidence from nationally planned highway infrastructure corroborates a causal interpretation.

Abstract: During traffic stops, police search black and Hispanic motorists more than twice as often as white motorists, yet those searches are no more likely to yield contraband. We ask whether equalizing search rates by motorist race would reduce contraband yield. We use unique administrative data from Texas to isolate variation in search behavior across and within highway patrol troopers and find that search rates are unrelated to the proportion of searches that yield contraband. We find that troopers can equalize search rates across racial groups, maintain the status quo search rate, and increase contraband yield. Troopers appear to be limited in their ability to discern between motorists that are more or less likely to carry contraband.

Abstract: In settings where social norms promote gender segregation, firms may find it costly to employ both men and women. These integration costs may hinder women's employment. We develop a methodology to test for the presence of fixed integration costs and estimate counterfactual women's employment at all-male firms where these costs bind. We apply our approach in Saudi Arabia and find that integration costs bind for the majority of firms.  We show that Nitaqat, a gender-neutral quota program that incentivized the hiring of Saudi nationals at private sector firms, induced firms to integrate and dramatically increased Saudi women's employment.

Abstract: The US criminal justice system is exceptionally punitive. We test whether racial heterogeneity is one cause, exploiting cross-jurisdiction variation in punishment severity in four Southern states. We estimate the causal effect of jurisdiction on arrest outcome using a fixed effects model that incorporates extensive charge and defendant controls. We validate our estimates using defendants charged in multiple jurisdictions. Consistent with a model of ingroup bias in electorate preferences, the relationship between local severity and black population share follows an inverted U-shape. Within states, defendants are 27%-54% more likely to be incarcerated in `peak' heterogeneous jurisdictions than in homogeneous jurisdictions. We estimate that confinement rates and race-based confinement rate gaps would fall by 15% if all jurisdictions adopted the severity of homogeneous jurisdictions within their state.

Abstract: I estimate the dynamic effects of federal affirmative action regulation, exploiting variation in the timing of regulation and deregulation across work establishments. Affirmative action increases the black share of employees over time: in 5 years after an establishment is first regulated, the black share of employees increases by an average of 0.8 percentage points. Strikingly, the black share continues to grow at a similar pace even after an establishment is deregulated. I argue that this persistence is driven in part by affirmative action inducing employers to improve their methods for screening potential hires.