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Murphy Institute Events

Brigham Walker, Public Policy Working Group

Tree Over Roof of Building on Tulane University's Campus - The Murphy Institute

Graduate Student, Department of Economics

Employment Discrimination against Indigenous People and the Labor Market Impact of Indian Reservations: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Location

Uptown Campus
Lavin-Bernick Center
201-Race Conference Room

Meeting time is 12:00 – 1:00pm. Lunch will be provided. The meeting is open only to members of the Public Policy Working Group.

Event Details

Invitation Only

Event Type: Public Policy Working Group

Sponsored By: Murphy Institute , Center for Public Policy Research

More Information

About the Speaker

“Employment Discrimination against Indigenous People and the Labor Market Impact of Indian Reservations: Evidence from a Field Experiment”
Patrick Button and Brigham Walker

Abstract:

We seek to design a field experiment – a resume correspondence study – to study the discrimination in hiring faced by Indigenous people (American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians) in the United States. We will create realistic resumes of men and women of about age 30 applying for common entry-level jobs (retail sales, cook, wait-staff, janitor, security). We will send employers three resumes: one white, one Indigenous, and, in some cases, one of an American Indian who grew up on an Indian reservation rather than in an urban center (signaled by high school). This allows us to estimate the labor market penalty associated with Indian reservations, controlling for race. As we will be putting this experiment into the field in late November, we are seeking feedback on the methodology before we do so.

The Murphy Institute

Established in memory of Charles H. Murphy, Sr. (1870-1954), and inspired by the vision of Charles H. Murphy, Jr. (1920-2002), The Murphy Institute exists to help Tulane faculty and students understand economic, moral, and political problems we all face and think about. More important, it exists to help us understand how these problems have come to be so closely interconnected.