Exploring the Prevalence, Causes, and Solutions To Discrimination Against Workers from Slums

This research examines the impact of labor market discrimination on the challenges faced by urban slum dwellers in Latin America and the Caribbean, focusing on a case study in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Using an artifactual field experiment, we enlisted and paid human resource recruiters to evaluate job applicants online and found that slum dwellers were selected at a significantly lower rate than non-slum dwellers, and received lower wages. Specifically, slum dwellers were selected only 4.2 times out of every 10 applicants, and received wages that were nearly 2\% lower than non-slum dwellers. Our study also tested an intervention to increase awareness of discrimination rates, which resulted in recruiters exhibiting a preference for slum dwellers. These findings shed light on the challenges faced by slum dwellers in the labor market and provide insights into potential interventions to address labor market discrimination in urban areas of Latin America and the Caribbean