Race and Gender Bias in Three Administrative Contexts: Impact on Work Assignments in State Supreme Courts

Christensen, Robert K.; Szmer, John; Stritch, Justin M.

doi:10.1093/jopart/mux040

Cited by 12 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Further studies have shown that recent trends of New Public Management reforms have increased discriminative behavior (Soss, Fording, and Schram 2011). Likewise, the administrative process has been found to affect the level of gender and racial bias (Christensen, Szmer, and Stritch 2012;Wenger and Wilkins 2009). This indicates that bureaucratic discrimination of minority citizens is contingent on organizational factors.…”

Section: Prior Studies Of Bureaucrats' Discriminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We use theories from psychology and economics to substantiate the hypothesis that workload affects discrimination. Besides the possibility that discrimination is a consequence of sheer taste-based preferences (Becker 1957)-a view that does not find many supporters in the field-discrimination is often argued to build on either statistical (correct or incorrect) beliefs about traits correlated with clients' group membership (Phelps 1972) or on implicit biases based on unconscious and automatic psychological processes that escape people's intentions (e.g., Devine 1989) and depend on contextual factors (Christensen, Szmer, and Stritch 2012;Wenger and Wilkins 2009). In the theory section, we argue that both the two latter views would support the notion that discrimination is related to bureaucrats' workload.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Reducing Minority Discrimination at the Front Line—Combined Survey and Field Experimental Evidence

Andersen

Guul

2019

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite laws of universalistic treatment, bureaucrats have been shown to discriminate against minorities. A crucial question for public administration is how bureaucracies can be organized in ways that minimize illegitimate discrimination. Especially, since theories suggest that prejudices happen unintentionally and particularly under high workload, bureaucrats' working conditions may be important. Four randomized experiments support the notion that bureaucrats discriminate as a way of coping with high workload. Most notably, a field experiment randomly assigned teachers to reduced workloads by giving them resources to have more time with the same group of students. In a subsequent survey experiment-using a fictitious future scenario unrelated to the resources provided in the field experiment-discrimination was minimized in the field treatment group, but persisted in the control group. The results thereby support the notion that even though discrimination among bureaucrats does not (only) occur in a reflective manner it can be reduced by altering the way bureaucrats' work is organized.

show abstract

Section: Prior Studies Of Bureaucrats' Discriminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing Minority Discrimination at the Front Line—Combined Survey and Field Experimental Evidence

Andersen

Guul

2019

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Soss, Fording, and Schram () show that New Public Management reforms have increased discriminatory behavior among caseworkers in Florida. Similarly, the context of the decision‐making process—specifically, the administrative process—in the judicial system affects the level of discrimination (Christensen, Szmer, and Stritch ). Likewise, Wenger and Wilkins () show that more automated processing of applications for state unemployment insurance decreases the level of gender discrimination.…”

Section: Employment Discrimination In the Public Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Good Performance Reduce Bad Behavior? Antecedents of Ethnic Employment Discrimination in Public Organizations

Guul

Villadsen

Wulff

2019

Public Administration Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Equal treatment is a key feature of modern bureaucracy. However, several studies have shown that public organizations discriminate against ethnic and racial minorities to different degrees. Which organizational features explain differences in discrimination is largely unknown. This article proposes that organizational performance relates to an organization's likelihood of engaging in employment discrimination and argues that poor‐performing organizations tend to be less open to new ideas and that decision makers in such organizations are more prone to stereotyping behavior. The study combines a field experiment in which applications were sent to real job vacancies in 71 Danish public schools with administrative data on the schools. Bayesian analyses show that minority applicants generally faced discrimination but that they experienced a higher callback rate from better‐performing schools than from poorer‐performing schools. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

show abstract

“…In 13 states, cases are randomly assigned to authoring judges. In the remaining 22 states, cases are assigned on a rotating system, with cases arbitrarily assigned to judges based on their order on the docket Christensen et al (2012). show some differences in case assignment characteristics across systems.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Intrinsic Motivation in Public Service: Theory and Evidence from State Supreme Courts

Ash

MacLeod

2015

The Journal of Law and Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

for their meticulous help in assembling data and other research assistance. We thank Matthew Freedman, Levon Barseghyan, and Adam Lavecchia for discussant comments on previous drafts. Columbia University's Program for Economic Research and the National Science Foundation Grant SES-1260875 provide financial support for this research. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

show abstract

Race and Gender Bias in Three Administrative Contexts: Impact on Work Assignments in State Supreme Courts

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

Reducing Minority Discrimination at the Front Line—Combined Survey and Field Experimental Evidence

Reducing Minority Discrimination at the Front Line—Combined Survey and Field Experimental Evidence

Does Good Performance Reduce Bad Behavior? Antecedents of Ethnic Employment Discrimination in Public Organizations

Intrinsic Motivation in Public Service: Theory and Evidence from State Supreme Courts

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About