Institutional Discrimination in (Explicit) Action: How Policies Shape Inequalities

This research project explores the consequences of institutional discrimination, i.e., discriminatory treatment of individuals (based on their membership to a certain group) perpetuated by organizations.

In particular, the project explores two policies that created institutional discrimination, and aims at causally estimating the impacts on the socio-economic outcomes of affected individuals.

In order to causally estimate the effects of institutional discrimination, I will make use of rich administrative data from the Netherlands and exploit quasi-random variation in exposure to institutional discrimination, induced by the Dutch institutional context.

In the first work package, I will use a combination of rich administrative data, machine learning methods, and a difference-in-differences research design, to study the effects of the Dutch childcare benefit scandal.

This scandal arose when the Dutch tax authorities started to target fraud investigations (and heavily punish even small administrative mistakes) using an algorithm that was biased against individuals with a non-Dutch nationality.

In the second work package, I will use rich Dutch administrative records matched with unique data from the social housing corporation in Rotterdam, and a difference-in-differences research design, to study the effects of the Rotterdam Act.

This Dutch policy created institutional discrimination by prohibiting access to social housing to some groups of individuals in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Both studies will investigate the effect of institution discrimination on a wide array of socio-economic outcomes, including labour market participation, welfare receipt, wealth, health, and criminal involvement.

The results of this project will be of interest to a wide audience as they will contribute to our understanding of how institutional discrimination might affect vulnerable groups in the population.