Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-5nwft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-07T08:42:37.061Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Political Solutions to Discriminatory Behavior

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2022

THORBJØRN SEJR GUUL Open the ORCID record for THORBJØRN SEJR GUUL [Opens in a new window]
THORBJØRN SEJR GUUL*
Affiliation:
University of Southern Denmark and Aarhus University, Denmark
*
Thorbjørn Sejr Guul, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Public Management, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark; affiliated with TrygFonden’s Centre for Child Research, Department of Economics and Business Economics and Centre for Integrated Register-Based Research, Aarhus University, Denmark, tguul@sam.sdu.dk.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Discriminatory treatment of minorities by public authorities remains a serious challenge and breaks with the central principles of impartiality. However, little research examines how discrimination can be reduced through political means. This article argues that discrimination occurs when the perceived marginal cost of serving a minority citizen exceeds the funding per user and/or when excess of demand forces the provider to prioritize which citizens to serve. This also suggests that increasing the funding per user and increasing supply to meet demand might reduce differential treatment. These predictions are tested in a high school enrollment system where the funding is linked to the number of students enrolled. Unique, fine-grained administrative data show that minority applicants are 9 percentage points less likely to be enrolled in their preferred high school. More importantly, an administrative reform shows how increasing the supply-side flexibility and pay per user cuts the difference in half.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 117 , Issue 2 , May 2023 , pp. 719 - 733
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abadie, Alberto, Athey, Susan, Imbens, Guido W., and Wooldridge, Jeffrey. 2017. “When Should You Adjust Standard Errors for Clustering?” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 24003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersen, Simon Calmar, and Guul, Thorbjørn Sejr. 2019. “Reducing Minority Discrimination at the Front Line—Combined Survey and Field Experimental Evidence.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 29 (3): 429–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Gary Stanley. 1957. The Economics of Discrimination. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bertrand, Marianne, Chugh, Dolly, and Mullainathan, Sendhil. 2005. “Implicit Discrimination.” The American Economic Review 95 (2): 94–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertrand, Marianne, and Duflo, Esther. 2016. “Field Experiments on Discrimination.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 22014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blöchliger, Hansjörg. 2008. “Market Mechanisms in Public Service Provision.” OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 626.Google Scholar
Boyne, George. 1995. “Population Size and Economies of Scale in Local Government.” Policy & Politics 23 (3): 213–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgess, Simon, Propper, Carol, and Wilson, Deborah. 2007. “The Impact of School Choice in England.” Policy Studies 28 (2): 129–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chubb, John E., and Moe, Terry M.. 1988. “Politics, Markets, and the Organization of Schools.” American Political Science Review 82 (4): 1065–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danish Parliament. 2010. Lov om ændring af lov om almene boliger m.v. https://www.ft.dk/ripdf/samling/20101/lovforslag/l60/20101_l60_som_fremsat.pdf.Google Scholar
Dinesen, Peter Thisted, Dahl, Malthe, and Schiøler, Mikkel. 2021. “When Are Legislators Responsive to Ethnic Minorities? Testing the Role of Electoral Incentives and Candidate Selection for Mitigating Ethnocentric Responsiveness.” American Political Science Review 115 (2): 450–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinesen, Peter Thisted, and Sønderskov, Kim Mannemar. 2015. “Ethnic Diversity and Social Trust: Evidence from the Micro-Context.” American Sociological Review 80 (3): 550–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Einstein, Katherine Levine, and Glick, David M.. 2017. “Does Race Affect Access to Government Services? An Experiment Exploring Street-Level Bureaucrats and Access to Public Housing.” American Journal of Political Science 61 (1): 100–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fang, Albert H., Guess, Andrew M., and Humphreys, Macartan. 2018. “Can the Government Deter Discrimination? Evidence from a Randomized Intervention in New York City.” The Journal of Politics 81 (1): 127–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finance Committee, Danish Parliament. 2009. Finansudvalget 2008-09, Aktstk 191. https://www.ft.dk/samling/20081/aktstykke/aktstk.191/aktstykke/642029/715302.pdf.Google Scholar
Green-Pedersen, Christoffer, and Krogstrup, Jesper. 2008. “Immigration as a Political Issue in Denmark and Sweden.” European Journal of Political Research 47 (5): 610–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guul, Thorbjørn Sejr. 2022. “Replication Data for: Political Solutions to Discriminatory Behavior.” Harvard Dataverse. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/TNQ7EI.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemker, Johannes, and Rink, Anselm. 2017. “Multiple Dimensions of Bureaucratic Discrimination: Evidence from German Welfare Offices.” American Journal of Political Science 61 (4): 786–803.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalla, Joshua L., and Broockman, David E.. 2020. “Reducing Exclusionary Attitudes through Interpersonal Conversation: Evidence from Three Field Experiments.” American Political Science Review 114 (2): 410–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladd, Helen F., and Fiske, Edward B.. 2001. “The Uneven Playing Field of School Choice: Evidence from New Zealand.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 20 (1): 43–63.3.0.CO;2-4>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Grand, Julian. 1991. “The Theory of Government Failure.” British Journal of Political Science 21 (4): 423–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipsky, Michael. 2010. Street-Level Bureaucracy, 30th Ann . Ed.: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Service. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Lubienski, Christopher, Gulosino, Charisse, and Weitzel, Peter. 2009. “School Choice and Competitive Incentives: Mapping the Distribution of Educational Opportunities across Local Education Markets.” American Journal of Education 115 (4): 601–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, Asmus Leth, Kyhse-Andersen, Jonas Høgh, and Moynihan, Donald. 2022. “The Unequal Distribution of Opportunity: A National Audit Study of Bureaucratic Discrimination in Primary School Access.” American Journal of Political Science 66 (3): 587–603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paluck, Elizabeth Levy, and Green, Donald P.. 2009. “Prejudice Reduction: What Works? A Review and Assessment of Research and Practice.” Annual Review of Psychology 60:339–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paluck, Elizabeth Levy, Green, Seth A., and Green, Donald P.. 2019. “The Contact Hypothesis Re-Evaluated.” Behavioural Public Policy 3 (2): 129–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedersen, Mogens Jin, Stritch, Justin M., and Thuesen, Frederik. 2018. “Punishment on the Frontlines of Public Service Delivery: Client Ethnicity and Caseworker Sanctioning Decisions in a Scandinavian Welfare State.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 28 (3): 339–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfaff, Steven, Crabtree, Charles, Kern, Holger L., and Holbein, John B.. 2021. “Do Street-Level Bureaucrats Discriminate Based on Religion? A Large-Scale Correspondence Experiment among American Public School Principals.” Public Administration Review 81 (2): 244–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phelps, Edmund S. 1972. “The Statistical Theory of Racism and Sexism.” The American Economic Review 62 (4): 659–61.Google Scholar
Pluss. 2012. Analyse af fordelingsudvalgenes rolle og praksis. Technical Report, Prepared for the Danish Ministry of Education.Google Scholar
Reny, Tyler T., and Newman, Benjamin J.. 2021. “The Opinion-Mobilizing Effect of Social Protest against Police Violence: Evidence from the 2020 George Floyd Protests.” American Political Science Review 115 (4): 1499–1507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Anne, and Ingram, Helen. 1993. “Social Construction of Target Populations: Implications for Politics and Policy.” American Political Science Review 87 (2): 334–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Silke L. 2008. “Anti-Immigrant Attitudes in Europe: Outgroup Size and Perceived Ethnic Threat.” European Sociological Review 24 (1): 53–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schram, Sanford F., Soss, Joe, Fording, Richard C., and Houser, Linda. 2009. “Deciding to Discipline: Race, Choice, and Punishment at the Frontlines of Welfare Reform.” American Sociological Review 74 (3): 398–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soss, Joe. 1999. “Lessons of Welfare: Policy Design, Political Learning, and Political Action.” American Political Science Review 93 (2): 363–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spencer, Katherine B., Charbonneau, Amanda K., and Glaser, Jack. 2016. “Implicit Bias and Policing.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass 10 (1): 50–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiebout, Charles M. 1956. “A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures.” Journal of Political Economy 64 (5): 416–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vedung, Evert. 2011. “Policy Instrument Typologies and Theories.” In Carrots, Sticks, and Sermons: Policy Instruments and Their Evaluation, eds. Bemelmans-Videc, Marie-Louise, Rist, Ray C., and Vedung, Evert, 21–58. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Villadsen, Anders R., and Wulff, Jesper N.. 2017. “Is the Public Sector a Fairer Employer? Ethnic Employment Discrimination in the Public and Private Sectors.” Academy of Management Discoveries 4 (4): 429–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, Max. 1947. The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
White, Ariel R., Nathan, Noah L., and Faller, Julie K.. 2015. “What Do I Need to Vote? Bureaucratic Discretion and Discrimination by Local Election Officials.” American Political Science Review 109 (1): 129–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wooldridge, Jeffrey M. 2010. Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ziller, Conrad, and Helbling, Marc. 2019. “Antidiscrimination Laws, Policy Knowledge and Political Support.” British Journal of Political Science 49 (3): 1027–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Guul Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/TNQ7EI
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Guul supplementary material

Guul supplementary material

Download Guul supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 162.3 KB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.