Slavs Only: Ethnic Discrimination and Rental Prices

Veterinarov, Viktor; Ivanov, Vladimir

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3249624

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Slavs Only: Ethnic Discrimination and Rental Prices

22 Pages Posted: 7 Oct 2018 Last revised: 29 Apr 2020

See all articles by Viktor Veterinarov

Vladimir Ivanov

Moscow State University - Faculty of Economics

Date Written: September 14, 2018

Abstract

We study the cost of ethnic discrimination for the landlords in the housing market. There are no legal fines for ethnic discrimination in the Russian market for rental apartments – hence we can observe explicit nationality-based constraints via advertisements. After controlling on all apartment characteristics we find that ethnic discrimination is connected with a significant decrease in price. This result is consistent with Becker’s theory of taste-based discrimination. These losses are lower the more landlords in Neighborhood prefer to discriminate. It sheds some light on mechanism facilitating the persistence of discrimination.

Keywords: Ethnic Discrimination, Housing Market, Rental Market

JEL Classification: J15, L85

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Veterinarov, Viktor and Ivanov, Vladimir, Slavs Only: Ethnic Discrimination and Rental Prices (September 14, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3249624 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3249624