Measuring Housing Discrimination in a National Study Report of a Workshop (2002) / Chapter Skim
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5 Developing a Model of Housing Discrimination
5 Developing a Model of Housing Discrimination
Pages 25-37
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From page 25... ...
Data on additional treatment variables collected from the sales audits are intended to capture changes in the housing market. These variables provide objective measures of how the auditor was treated during the housing transaction and are used to measure racially disparate treatment during the audit.
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From page 26... ...
. amenities Housing Availability · Access denied: no appointment or no unit available · Advertised unit available · Units similar to advertised unit available Sales Effort · Questions asked about income · Questions asked about reasons for need to move · Invitation to call back Financing Assistance · Assistance with financing volunteered · Auditor told he/she is not qualified · Auditor told fixed-rate conventional financing available · Auditor told adjustable-rate conventional financing available Sales Effort · Follow-up phone call NOTE: This is not an exhaustive list of core treatment variables in the 2000 HDS.
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From page 27... ...
To find the correct measure of discrimination, participants contemplated a conceptual experiment in which auditors are matched perfectly on all observable characteristics and encounter completely identical circumstances during their visit to a housing agent. Under these circumstances, the researchers believe the correct measure of the incidence of disparate treatment discrimination is the gross measure.
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From page 28... ...
During the workshop, Urban Institute researchers acknowledged an inability to match auditors on the myriad of possible unobservable characteristics. They stated that their goal was different: to structure a study that could test whether those unobservable characteristics really matter in racially differential treatment of the auditors.
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From page 29... ...
Participants stressed the importance of addressing the issue of heterogeneity among the auditors, the housing units, and the housing agents. Heterogeneity in any of these elements may have an impact on both the gross and net measures of adverse treatment.
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From page 30... ...
. The variable xi~ is a vector containing the characteristics of the auditor that are observed by or known to the researchers and are used to match audit pairs.
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From page 31... ...
The difference between these two fractions is a measure of net discrimination against non-whites. The problem with the gross measure of discrimination is that random variation across testers in Sip differences in the distribution of pi' that are related to race, and random variation in z and v between testor visits to a particular unit will lead to differences in the outcomes even though the audit pairs have been matched on xi`.
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From page 32... ...
These estimates would increase the precision of the net adverse treatment measure. Murphy's discussion of the methodological aspects of the 2000 HDS also addressed the interaction of auditor characteristics and the structure of audit pairs.
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From page 33... ...
He suggested the Urban Institute weight the results using not the advertisements, but the characteristics of the housing unit. The audit results could then be compared with a national database containing the distribution and characteristics of the housing stock in the United States, namely occupancy or vacancy rates.
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From page 34... ...
He suggested Phase II could serve the objective of providing reasonable estimates of the variance components associated with auditors, housing providers, and advertisement sources. The later phases of the study would rely on exploration of the interactions between audit pairs and other methodological concerns identified in earlier phases.
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From page 35... ...
Louis's remarks also aclclressecl matching of audit pairs ancl its implications for the interpretation of audit results. He expressed concern about the large variance component for the matched pairs on the one hand ancl the inability to properly model tester heterogeneity on the other.
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From page 36... ...
Participants discussed capturing available housing stock by linking vacancy rates with actual rentals or turnovers to buttress the newspaper selection methodology. Korenman commented on the screening call, in which a white tester calls about the housing unit to determine whether it is still available.
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From page 37... ...
Participants raised the issues of (1) how to measure discrimination in housing markets with changing demographics, and (2)
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