Sigrid Suetens (Tilburg University) – Double fairness standards in Germany and France

Double fairness standards in Germany and France co-author Sueda Fatma Evirgen Ethnic minorities in European and other high-income countries experience persistent employment and wage gaps relative to majority populations. A potential mechanism is the presence of double fairness standards, whereby identical productivity is rewarded differently depending on ethnic identity. Empirically identifying such standards is difficult because productivity is typically unobserved. We address this challenge using incentivized behavioral experiments in Germany and France. In total, 2,660 majority-population participants decided on how to divide income between two anonymous individuals—one with a majority and one with an ethnic minority background—whose productivities were experimentally fixed and fully observable. Holding productivity constant, minority individuals received on average 4.7% less income than equally productive majority individuals. The effect is concentrated among participants who express negative views on ethnic diversity. Because productivity was fixed by design, our findings demonstrate that ethnic minorities are subject to double fairness standards in the valuation of their productivity.