THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW SEPTEMBER 2004 experimentally manipulate perception of race Whites with lower-quality resumes. On the via the name of the fictitious job applicant. We other hand, having a higher-quality resume has randomly assign very White-sounding names a smaller effect for African-Americans. In other (such as Emily Walsh or Greg Baker)to half the words, the gap between Whites and African- resumes and very African-American-sounding Americans widens with resume quality. while names(such as Lakisha Washington or Jamal one may have expected improved credentials to Jones) to the other half. Because we are also alleviate employers'fear that African-American gap in callback, we experimentally vary the skills, this is not the case in our date servable interested in how credentials affect the racial applicants are deficient in some unob given ad Higher-quality applicants have on ay. 4p The experiment also reveals several other quality of the resumes used in response to a spects of the differential treatment by race erage a little more labor market experience and First, since we randomly assign applicant fewer holes in their employment history; they postal addresses to the resumes, we can stud are also more likely to have an e-mail address, the effect of neighborhood of residence on the have completed some certification degree, pos- likelihood of callback. We find that living in a sess foreign langua 3 In practice, we typically borhood increases callback rates. But, interest ge skills, or have been wealthier(or more educated or Whiter) neigh awarded some honor send four resumes in response to each ad: two ingly, African-Americans are not helped more higher-quality and two lower-quality ones. than Whites by living in a"better"neighbor- We randomly assign to one of the higher- and hood. Second, the racial gap we measure one of the lower-quality resumes an African- different industries does not appear correlated to American-sounding name. In total, we respond Census-based measures of the racial gap in to over 1, 300 employment ads in the sales, wages. The same is true for the racial gap we administrative support, clerical, and customer measure in different occupations. In fact, we services job categories and send nearly 5,000 find that the racial gaps in callback are statisti resumes. The ads we respond to cover a large cally indistinguishable across all the occupation spectrum of job quality, from cashier work at and industry categories covered in the experi retail establishments and clerical work in a mail ment. Federal contractors, who are thought to be room, to office and sales management positions. more severely constrained by affirmative action We find large racial differences in callback laws, do not treat the African-American re- rates Applicants with White names need to sumes more preferentially; neither do larger em- send about 10 resumes to get one callback ployers or employers who explicitly state that whereas applicants with African-American they are"Equal Opportunity Employers. In names need to send about 15 resumes. This Chicago, we find a slightly smaller racial ga 50-percent gap in callback is statistically signi when employers are located in more African- icant. a White name yields as many more call- American neighborhoods backs as an additional eight years of experience The rest of the paper is organized as follows on a resume. Since applicants names are ran- Section I compar domly assigned, this gap can only be attributed work on racial discrimination, and most nota- to the name manipulation bly to the labor market audit studies. We Race also affects the reward to having a bet- describe the experimental design in Section ter resume. Whites with higher-quality resumes II and present the results in Section Ill, subsec receive nearly 30-percent more callbacks than tion A In Section IV, we discuss possible in- terpretations of our results, focusing especiall on two issues First we examine whether the In creating the higher-quality resumes, we deliberate 6 These results contrast with the view, mostly ered in this experiment higher returns to skills. For example, estimating however, these effects are about the several decades of census d We briefly discuss below eckman et al. (2001) show that African- discussion is experience higher returns to a high school degree than offered in Section iv. subsection B Whites do992 THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW SEPTEMBER 2004 experimentally manipulate perception of race via the name of the fictitious job applicant. We randomly assign very White-sounding names (such as Emily Walsh or Greg Baker) to half the resumes and very African-American-sounding names (such as Lakisha Washington or Jamal Jones) to the other half. Because we are also interested in how credentials affect the racial gap in callback, we experimentally vary the quality of the resumes used in response to a given ad. Higher-quality applicants have on av￾erage a little more labor market experience and fewer holes in their employment history; they are also more likely to have an e-mail address, have completed some certification degree, pos￾sess foreign language skills, or have been awarded some honor^.^ In practice, we typically send four resumes in response to each ad: two higher-quality and two lower-quality ones. We randomly assign to one of the higher- and one of the lower-quality resumes an African￾American-sounding name. In total, we respond to over 1,300 employment ads in the sales, administrative support, clerical, and customer services job categories and send nearly 5,000 resumes. The ads we respond to cover a large spectrum of job quality, from cashier work at retail establishments and clerical work in a mail room, to office and sales management positions. We find large racial differences in callback rates.4 Applicants with White names need to send about 10 resumes to get one callback whereas applicants with African-American names need to send about 15 resumes. This 50-percent gap in callback is statistically signif￾icant. A White name yields as many more call￾backs as an additional eight years of experience on a resume. Since applicants' names are ran￾domly assigned, this gap can only be attributed to the name manipulation. Race also affects the reward to having a bet￾ter resume. Whites with higher-quality resumes receive nearly 30-percent more callbacks than In creating the higher-quality resumes, we deliberately make small changes in credentials so as to minimize the risk of overqualification. For ease of exposition, we refer to the effects uncov￾ered in this experiment as racial differences. Technically, however, these effects are about the racial soundingness of names. We briefly discuss below the potential confounds between name and race. A more extensive discussion is offered in Section IV, subsection B. Whites with lower-quality resumes. On the other hand, having a higher-quality resume has a smaller effect for African-Americans. In other words, the gap between Whites and African￾Americans widens with resume quality. While one may have expected improved credentials to alleviate employers' fear that African-American applicants are deficient in some unobservable skills, this is not the case in our data.5 The experiment also reveals several other aspects of the differential treatment by race. First, since we randomly assign applicants' postal addresses to the resumes, we can study the effect of neighborhood of residence on the likelihood of callback. We find that living in a wealthier (or more educated or Whiter) neigh￾borhood increases callback rates. But, interest￾ingly, African-Americans are not helped more than Whites by living in a "better" neighbor￾hood. Second, the racial gap we measure in different industries does not appear correlated to Census-based measures of the racial gap in wages. The same is true for the racial gap we measure in different occupations. In fact, we find that the racial gaps in callback are statisti￾cally indistinguishable across all the occupation and industry categories covered in the experi￾ment. Federal contractors, who are thought to be more severely constrained by affirmative action laws, do not treat the African-American re￾sumes more preferentially; neither do larger em￾ployers or employers who explicitly state that they are "Equal Opportunity Employers." In Chicago, we find a slightly smaller racial gap when employers are located in more African￾American neighborhoods. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section I compares this experiment to earlier work on racial discrimination, and most nota￾bly to the labor market audit studies. We describe the experimental design in Section I1 and present the results in Section 111, subsec￾tion A. In Section IV, we discuss possible in￾terpretations of our results, focusing especially on two issues. First, we examine whether the These results contrast with the view, mostly based on nonexperimental evidence, that African-Americans receive higher returns to skills. For example, estimating earnings regressions on several decades of Census data, James J. Heckman et al. (2001) show that African-Americans experience higher returns to a high school degree than Whites do