<p>You will find below two good and recent surveys on the literature on economics of discrimination and they all point out a clear difference between taste-based and statistical discrimination. We can imagine a situation where the employer's information about workers' productivity is perfect, such that there is no statistical discrimination, and still observe a racial wage discrimination for example because the employer has a taste for discrimination. Knowing the source of discrimination seems crucial to fight against discrimination and its consequences.</p>

<p>Charles, K. K., and J. Guryan (2011): “Studying Discrimination: Fundamental
Challenges and Recent Progress,” Annual Review of Economics,
3(1), 479–511.</p>

<p>Lang, K., and J.-Y. K. Lehmann (2012): “Racial Discrimination in the
Labor Market: Theory and Empirics,” Journal of Economic Literature,
50(4), 959–1006.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-05T08:55:21.590Z
I absolutely agree that in countries like the US, where there is a legal distinction between the two theories, the disentanglement is crucial. I am thinking just about whether it is possible to build a single model of discrimination that incorporates both the theories (and their evolution)
Fuca26
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-04T22:14:31.000Z
2016-02-04T22:14:31.000Z
emeryville
<p>Given the progress in the literature on economics of discrimination. What is the reason for still believing in the dichotomy taste-based VS statistical discrimination. I think the first theory is just a specific case of statistical discrimination, where information on discriminated workers' productivity is weighted by the discrimination coefficient (which basically is just a scaling factor). Any attempt to disentangle the two types of discrimination is pointless. Or?</p>

<preferences><statistics><discrimination>
statistical discrimination VS taste based discrimination
Fuca26
# statistical discrimination VS taste based discrimination

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-02-04)

Given the progress in the literature on economics of discrimination. What is the reason for still believing in the dichotomy taste-based VS statistical discrimination. I think the first theory is just a specific case of statistical discrimination, where information on discriminated workers' productivity is weighted by the discrimination coefficient (which basically is just a scaling factor). Any attempt to disentangle the two types of discrimination is pointless. Or?

**Tags:** preferences, statistics, discrimination


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-02-04. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

You will find below two good and recent surveys on the literature on economics of discrimination and they all point out a clear difference between taste-based and statistical discrimination. We can imagine a situation where the employer's information about workers' productivity is perfect, such that there is no statistical discrimination, and still observe a racial wage discrimination for example because the employer has a taste for discrimination. Knowing the source of discrimination seems crucial to fight against discrimination and its consequences.

Charles, K. K., and J. Guryan (2011): “Studying Discrimination: Fundamental
Challenges and Recent Progress,” Annual Review of Economics,
3(1), 479–511.

Lang, K., and J.-Y. K. Lehmann (2012): “Racial Discrimination in the
Labor Market: Theory and Empirics,” Journal of Economic Literature,
50(4), 959–1006.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I absolutely agree that in countries like the US, where there is a legal distinction between the two theories, the disentanglement is crucial. I am thinking just about whether it is possible to build a single model of discrimination that incorporates both the theories (and their evolution)  

---

