Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Labour Economics
May 2019

Antonio Mora López (Seminari 301)

Mar Carreras Pego (Seminari 201)

Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Racial Discrimination: A Field Experiment
by Amanda Agan and Sonja Starr

Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 133 (1), pp. 191-235, 2018

Report development:

1. Introduction - presentation of the subject of the article and the study that has
been carried out
2. Development - shows a more detailed view of the development of the study
3. Critical conclusion - explanation of the results that were taken from the study.
We also give an opinion on possible reforms or improvements to the BTB laws
4. Personal opinion - critical evaluation of the study carried out and the results
obtained

1.INTRODUCTION

The experiment discussed below was created with the intention of demonstrating
whether the labour reform really helped or harmed those workers who demanded
employment and had serious difficulties in obtaining it.

BTB is a law or a series of reforms that were created in the United States with the
goal of improving or facilitating the employment situation of workers who were black
or had criminal records.

In the United States, many employers, in their job offer questionnaires done during
their selection process, asked the following question: Have you ever been convicted
of a crime? With only two possible answers: Yes or no. This question was an easy and
fruitful way of eliminating all those people who answered yes and for whom it was
very difficult to find a job because of their past or because of that condition.
The hypothesis with which we work in this experiment is the following: after
implementing the BTB reform, employers will use prejudice and the black race will be
harmed. As we will see below, the BTB legislation only delays the fact of the
employer being informed about the crimes. However, it is true that after having an
interview and getting to know the person, it is more difficult to reject the person
than doing it through a check in the "Yes" of the crime question.

So the following experiment will try to demonstrate whether our null hypothesis is
true by an econometric study using certain assumptions.

2. DEVELOPMENT

Some fictitious job applications were submitted to low-skilled jobs before and after
the BTB law in both New Jersey and New York with "the call back" as a result of
interest on you.

Jobs that didn't need experience and high school diploma were searched using the
"indeed" and "snagajob" applications. The use of this applications was due to the fact
that through them, the job application could be submitted online. Moreover, the
jobs applied were more related to individuals who have committed crimes at some
time in their lives.

Different profiles of applicants were created, all males of both races (white and
black) aged between 21 and 22. Race was not added directly to each applicant's
profile but through a database, full black names from 1989 to 1997 were searched to
generate these profiles. In this way, the employer would quickly differentiate their
race with only reading the names of the applicants.

As we have commented, the variable studied in this experiment is "call-back" to job

seekers according to their profile. The statistics of the observed data are not going to
be far removed from the null hypothesis assumed before the carrying out of the
study.

Prior to the BTB reform, the callback rate was 60% higher for non- criminal people.
After the reform, this rate decreased markedly because employers had to invest
more resources in knowing these data. There were no significant differences in terms
of GED (high school graduate) and there were no significant differences in terms of
employment gap. Before BTB, however, there was not much difference in call-back
rates based on the "race" variable. In contrast, in employers after BTB there is a
significant racial gap, suggesting that employers without delinquency data could use
racial assumptions to discriminate between criminals or not.

This experiment has been developed using econometric models with certain
hypotheses and has had some specific limitations when it comes to carrying it out.
One of this limitations may be the fact that the sample on which the experiment was
based were black and white men between 21 and 22 years old, that is, that only the
masculine gender and two specific races were taken into account, leaving aside the
female gender together with the Moroccan race, South American race, gypsy race,
etc. Another factor was that the age interval which was very specific and concrete.
But, it's also true that this limitations have helped the investigation as if the sample
had added more variables to the model it would have been much more complicated
and more complex to create the estimated model and obtain results. However, the
biggest constraint of the model was not being able to directly estimate the effects of
the BTB law on contracting due to the great complexity of getting that information
and therefore, they had to settle for the study on the callback rates.

3. CRITICAL CONCLUSION

The results have mixed implications. On the one hand, it is clearly observable that
having the box makes it difficult for people who have ever committed a crime to find
employment. Although many employers did not use the box in their job offer
questionnaires, they could discriminate after interviews or check the records. After
the BTB reform and according to the study, those companies that used the box to
discriminate between people with crimes or people without crimes, have multiplied
by six the racial difference between the white and black races. After BTB, black
people saw call-back rates fall while white ones saw them grow. In other words,
white criminals benefit and black non-criminals suffer greatly. Even though the racial
gap was widening, the callback rate increased globally.

As a possible conclusion, we determined that employers, after BTB and in the

absence of the registration box, use race to represent convictions. An act of prejudice
that increases racial discrimination. Following the results, policy-makers and
academic responsible may be interested in unraveling these mechanisms of
discrimination. This will require external data and studies on the employer's decision.
Through the study, it can be confirmed that most Americans subconsciously
associate race with criminality.
BTB measures are, after all, well-intentioned and seem to help some applicants in
order to give them an opportunity to access the interview. However, the experiment
shows that this improvement for these people is made at the expense of another
group that is actually harmed: black men. The experiment supports the hypothesis
that after BTB takes effect, employers increase racial discrimination. The estimates
do not refer to an actual size of the labour market, i.e. the net effect of whether BTB
more or less helps blacks may be ambiguous in terms of the actual size of the groups
benefited/harmful. That said, the estimates at first glance on the table point to an
increase in the employment gap between men of different races.

Those responsible for the creation of BTB could compensate for this policy with the
creation of a new one in favour of the black race. This is a complicated measure as it
is very difficult to enforce laws on recruitment. Alternatively, politicians could also
create an alternative law to encourage the employment of registered persons (those
who have committed crimes).

4. PERSONAL OPINION

We were pleasantly surprised by the article as we did not think it would end with
these conclusions. As the text begins, you may think that the BTB reform is a social
act and with a very good ethic but then, after the study it is demonstrated that it's
not like this. Politicians or creators of labour laws will have to continue working to
correct this erroneous reform in which specific objectives were sought that have
been corrected, but creating new ones that will have to be corrected at a later date.

In terms of employers, it could be debated whether they are racist or not, or whether
American society is not yet developed in terms of equity and social justice. It is a
complicated question but we suggest the study of criminals according to race in
order to compare and/or debate the performance of employers based on statistical
data. According to this study, employers after the application of BTB increase the
racial gap due to prejudices about crime. If the percentage of criminals by race could
be compared with the return of calls from employers, we would be able to discuss
the behaviour of employers.

Finally, one of the policies that we propose to correct these failures in the labour
market would be the elimination of BTB and that there would still be boxes in the
registers but subsidize companies to hire a percentage of workers who have
committed crimes or punish those who do not comply with the rule. The employer
will go to great lengths to decide which people with crimes are optimal for the work
they have offered.