Discrimination and selection in the Belgian private rental market

Heylen, Kristof; Broeck, Katleen Van den

doi:10.1080/02673037.2015.1070798

Cited by 45 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…In addition, applicants with foreign-sounding names received responses that were more likely to be negative. Similar results were found in a recent study in Belgium [ 23 ]. A study on rental discrimination and ethnicity in the US showed that typical African-American and Arabic names received fewer positive responses than typical White names [ 24 ].…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Ethnic and gender discrimination in the private rental housing market in Finland: A field experiment

Öblom

Antfolk

2017

PLoS ONE

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Ethnic and gender discrimination in a variety of markets has been documented in several populations. We conducted an online field experiment to examine ethnic and gender discrimination in the private rental housing market in Finland. We sent 1459 inquiries regarding 800 apartments. We compared responses to standardized apartment inquiries including fictive Arabic-sounding, Finnish-sounding or Swedish-sounding female or male names. We found evidence of discrimination against Arabic-sounding names and male names. Inquiries including Arabic-sounding male names had the lowest probability of receiving a response, receiving a response to about 16% of the inquiries made, while Finnish-sounding female names received a response to 42% of the inquires. We did not find any evidence of the landlord’s gender being associated with the discrimination pattern. The findings suggest that both ethnic and gender discrimination occur in the private rental housing market in Finland.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Ethnic and gender discrimination in the private rental housing market in Finland: A field experiment

Öblom

Antfolk

2017

PLoS ONE

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“…Also in France, field experiments have revealed that individuals with names that are not typically French are less likely to receive responses to housing‐related inquiries compared with individuals with more typical French names (Acolin & Bostic, ). A study from the Belgian housing market also reports similar findings (Heylen & Van den Broeck, ). In the United States, inquiries signed by Arabic‐sounding and African‐American‐sounding names received fewer positive responses compared with names typical for the White population (Carpusor & Loges, ).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 72%

Discrimination based on gender and ethnicity in English and Polish housing markets

Antfolk

Szala

Öblom

2019

Community & Applied Soc Psy

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Discrimination in the housing market is associated with decreased social integration and is costly at both social and individual levels. Here, we studied discrimination in English and Polish housing markets. In line with previous research, we expected ethnic-and gender-based discrimination to occur in both housing markets. Conducting a preregistered field experiment of discrimination in the housing market, we sent e-mails with inquiries about advertisements for 960 rentals in England and Poland. Inquiries were signed with Arabic-, English-, or Polish-sounding male and female names. As a measure of discrimination, we calculated the proportion of answers that we received. In the English housing market, there was no statistically significant difference between the proportions of responses received for inquiries signed with Arabic, English, or Polish male or female names. In the Polish housing market, we received fewer responses to inquiries signed with Arabic male names than inquiries signed with any other names. The study shows discrimination against Arabic men in the Polish housing market, but there was no evidence of ethnic-or gender-based discrimination in the English housing market.The results are discussed against the subordinate male target hypothesis as well as the current social and political situations in both countries.

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“…In order to test discrimination toward similar characteristics with other ethnic groups, a large scale experiment was conducted more than three years later by Verhaeghe et al (2017) in Brussels Capital Region by means of correspondence tests and in-person tests conducted over the phone. More than 20 000 messages were sent to real estate agents and 1.542 successful calls were made by phone in matched paired procedure, allowing to find results consistent with Heylen and Van den Broeck (2016). Results of the written approach indicate that Eastern European applicants are not discriminated while men with Sub-Saharan African and Arab/Muslim sounding names are 21 to 23 per cent less likely to receive a response than men with Belgian names.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Indeed, a very courteous answer may very well hide deep racism. For example, when a private landlord or a real estate agent meets a tester or answers the phone, he/she will not necessarily dare to display his hostility during the conversation if the ethnicity of the tester does not suit him (see Heylen andVan den Broeck, 2016, Verhaeghe et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic and gender discrimination in the rental housing market: Evidence from a meta-analysis of correspondence tests, 2006–2017

Flage

2018

Journal of Housing Economics

110

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We present a large review of all studies that tested discrimination against minority ethnic groups in the rental housing market with the correspondence tests method. Moreover, we perform a meta-analysis of correspondence tests from 25 separate studies conducted in OECD countries between 2006 and 2017, containing more than 300 estimates of effects and representing a total of over 110 000 emails sent to private landlords or real estate agents. In addition to presenting overall results of recent studies, we focus on subgroups of specific correspondence tests in order to highlight the differences across ethnicity, gender, type of landlords, procedure, continent, and type of information provided in applications. We provide evidence that both gender and ethnic discrimination occur in the rental housing market in OECD countries, such that minority-sounding names and male names applicants are discriminated (especially for Arab/Muslim applicants). We show the existence of interactions between ethnic and gender discrimination: gender discrimination is larger for Minority-sounding names than for Majority-sounding names. Thus, ethnic Majority women are the most favored on this market in OECD countries while Minority men are the most disadvantaged. Moreover, we highlight that this discrimination mainly comes from agents' preferences rather than statistical discrimination. Finally, it seems that real estate agents discriminate significantly less minority applicants than private landlords do. These results are robust to the estimation method used (random effects, fixed-effects and unrestricted weighted least squares methods).

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Discrimination and selection in the Belgian private rental market

Cited by 45 publications

References 19 publications

Ethnic and gender discrimination in the private rental housing market in Finland: A field experiment

Ethnic and gender discrimination in the private rental housing market in Finland: A field experiment

Discrimination based on gender and ethnicity in English and Polish housing markets

Ethnic and gender discrimination in the rental housing market: Evidence from a meta-analysis of correspondence tests, 2006–2017

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