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

Öblom, Annamaria; Antfolk, Jan

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0183344

Cited by 31 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(50 reference statements)

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“…A strong level of discrimination against Arab/Muslim was also recently revealed by Öblom and Antfolk (2017) in Finland. By sending almost one thousand and five hundred inquiries in matched paired procedure during December 2015 and April 2016 to private landlords in Helsinki, Turku, Tampere and other selected locations around Finland, they showed evidence of both gender and ethnic prejudice.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…We included data from 25 studies, covering 14 countries: France (Acolin et al, 2016, Bunel et al, 2017, Bunel et al 2016, Le Gallo et al, 2017, Canada (Hogan, Berry, 2011), Czech Republic (Bartoš et al, 2016), Slovakia (Sacherová, 2016), Finland (Öblom and Antfolk, 2017), Denmark (Herby and Nielsen, 2015), Germany (Auspurg et al, 2017, Team BR Data andSpiegel Online, 2017), Italy (Baldini and Federici, 2011), Norway (Andersson et al, 2012), Spain (Bosch et al, 2010, Bosch et al, 2015, Sweden (Ahmed et al, 2010, Ahmed and Hammarstedt, 2008, Carlsson and Eriksson, 2013, Iceland (Björnsson et al, 2017), Israel (Sansani, 2017) and finally USA (Carpusor and Loges, 2006, Ewens et al, 2014, Friedman et al, 2010, Hanson and Hawley, 2011, Hanson and Santas, 2014, which are countries very similar in terms of development, whether human or economic.…”

Section: Methods and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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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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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Methods and Datamentioning

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

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In Sweden, it has additionally been shown that women with Swedish names are more likely to receive responses to inquiries about rentals compared with women with Arabic names (Bengtsson et al, ). Similarly, a recent field experiment conducted in Finland showed discrimination against Arabic‐sounding male names in particular (Öblom & Antfolk, ). A study conducted in Italy (Beldini & Federici, ) used Italian‐, Arabic‐, and East European‐sounding names to investigate discrimination on the housing market.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…An example of such discrimination is the increased difficulty immigrants experience in gaining access to apartments that suit their needs (e.g., Aaltonen, Joronen, & Villa, ). Research conducted in, for example, the United States, Australia, Italy, India, Germany, France, Britain, Spain, Sweden, and Finland provides evidence for housing market discrimination being widespread (e.g., Ahmed & Hammerstedt, ; Bosch, Carnero, & Farré, ; Datta & Pathania, ; Dion, ; MacDonald et al, ; Öblom & Antfolk, ; Pager & Shepherd, ; Riach & Rich, ). In Finland, approximately 30% of interviewed immigrants reported having experienced discrimination when seeking an apartment (Aaltonen et al, ), and immigrants in Nordic countries also tend to get different housing opportunities compared with the majority populations (Andersen, Magnusson Turner, & Soholt, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…E‐mail inquiries were signed by Arabic‐, English‐, or Polish‐sounding names, and the rate of responses to these inquiries was recorded. The use of this type of correspondence test (as in, e.g., Ahmed & Hammerstedt, , and Öblom & Antfolk, ) allows the standardization of inquiries across names that represent both genders and various ethnicities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Antfolk

Szala

Öblom

2019

Community & Applied Soc Psy

Self Cite

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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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Capturing urban diversity through languages: Long‐term changes in multilingual residential neighbourhoods in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area

Väisänen,

Järv,

Toivonen

et al. 2023

Population Space and Place

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Contemporary cities are becoming highly diverse on an unprecedented scale due to accelerating urbanization, international migration and mobility. Research on urban diversity commonly focuses on ethnicities and countries of origin, disregarding equally informative characteristics, such as information on languages and language use, which might reveal new aspects of urban diversity. In this paper, we analyse the development of urban diversity in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area between 1987 and 2019 using language information retrieved from the Finnish population register and examine the extent to which linguistic diversity captures urban diversity. We focus on two population groups, speakers of Estonian and Somali, to analyse how linguistic diversity and socioeconomic characteristics have changed in their residential neighbourhoods and to estimate to what extent these population groups have integrated into the host society. We measured linguistic diversity using Shannon entropy, performed spatial clustering analyses and used Markov chains to examine the likelihood of changes in linguistic diversity. We found clear spatial patterns and high spatial variability in the development of linguistic diversity, which shows that geographical space is a central component in linguistic diversity. Our results suggest that linguistic diversity is more likely to change in more segregated neighbourhoods and show that linguistic diversity is a suitable proxy for urban diversity. Understanding urban diversity is a key element for supporting social sustainability and cohesion in urban areas now and in the future. Mapping the spatio‐temporal and intersectional patterns of urban diversity is crucial for managing its negative effects, but more importantly, in leveraging its positive effects.

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

Cited by 31 publications

References 30 publications

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

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

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

Capturing urban diversity through languages: Long‐term changes in multilingual residential neighbourhoods in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area

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