Discrimination During Eviction Moratoria
We merge a hand-collected dataset on state-level eviction policies with a nationwide field experiment of over 25,000 rental inquiries to study how enforcement constraints affect screening in rental markets. Exploiting plausibly exogenous variation from the staggered repeal of moratoria, we show that property managers discriminated more against minority renters when eviction—the primary enforcement mechanism—was suspended. Linking the experiment to tenant address histories, we find that nonresponses during moratoria translated into systematically different move-in patterns, shaping rental asset performance and market access. A simple search model explains these responses as landlords re-optimizing when enforcement is suspended.
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