Working Paper: NBER ID: w26805
Authors: Peter Christensen; Ignacio Sarmiento-Barbieri; Christopher Timmins
Abstract: Local pollution exposures disproportionately impact minority households, but the root causes remain unclear. This study conducts a correspondence experiment on a major online housing platform to test whether housing discrimination constrains minority access to housing options in markets with significant sources of airborne chemical toxics. We find that renters with African American or Hispanic/LatinX names are 41% less likely than renters with White names to receive responses for properties in low-exposure locations. We find no evidence of discriminatory constraints in high-exposure locations, indicating that discrimination increases relative access to housing choices at elevated exposure risk.
Keywords: housing discrimination; environmental justice; toxic exposure; racial inequality; rental market
JEL Codes: Q51; Q53; R31
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Racial identity (J15) | Likelihood of receiving responses from landlords (R21) |
| Discrimination (J71) | Access to housing options in low-exposure locations (R21) |
| Racial identity (J15) | Likelihood of receiving responses from landlords in low-exposure locations (R21) |
| Discrimination (J71) | Access to housing options in high-exposure locations (R21) |
| Discriminatory behavior (J71) | Response likelihood based on racial identity (J15) |
| Discriminatory behavior (J71) | Variability in response likelihood across demographics (J79) |