Decomposing Ethnic Discrimination

Last registered on October 27, 2025
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Decomposing Ethnic Discrimination
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016282
Initial registration date
October 16, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
October 27, 2025, 9:27 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Roel van Veldhuizen
Affiliation
Lund University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Vojtech Bartos
PI Affiliation
University of Milan
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-10-27
End date
2026-02-06
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We use a design-based identification strategy to identify the mechanisms driving ethnic discrimination in an online experiment. In our experiment, "employers" have to hire either a black or a white "worker" and are paid based on the worker's performance on a real-effort task (solving math problems). We present each employer with several hiring decisions that vary the payoff implications and/or revealed productivity of the workers. We use these choices to study the mechanisms driving any observed ethnic discrimination, focusing on altruism and taste-based discrimination as well as accurate and inaccurate statistical discrimination.
External Link(s)
Pre-registration of previous experiment

Registration Citation

Citation
Bartos, Vojtech and Roel van Veldhuizen. 2025. "Decomposing Ethnic Discrimination." AEA RCT Registry. October 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16282-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2025-10-27
Intervention End Date
2025-11-07

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The first primary outcome is a binary choice between two workers (1-White, 0-Black). The second is the "black worker premium", which captures the minimum productivity difference required to hire a black worker.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
See the pre-analysis plan for more details.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
We will also examine beliefs about relative productivity and the price list switch point for which employers shift from hiring a black to a white worker.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We recruit participants on Prolific to serve as workers tasked with doing 20 math problems. We then recruit further participants on Prolific to serve as employers. Employers make a sequence of binary hiring decisions for a pair of workers featuring a black and a white man. We vary the payoff consequences to the workers and the what employers know about the workers' relative productivity. We also elicit beliefs about the workers' absolute productivity. See the pre-analysis plan for further details.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Computer (Qualtrics). We use a within-subject design. Each participant faces four within-subject treatments. Randomization is implemented to randomly vary the order in which the four within-subject treatments are presented. We also pre-registered our first experiment for this paper in this registry, which had a very similar design (https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/5112/history/58046).
Randomization Unit
Individual, as per the above.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1200 employers and 160 workers
Sample size: planned number of observations
1200 employers and 160 workers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1200 employers and 160 workers
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
A 5pp change in discrimination assuming 20% noise. See the pre-analysis plan for more details.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Milan Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2025-04-08
IRB Approval Number
43/25
Analysis Plan

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials