Housing Discrimination and the Toxics Exposure Gap in the United States: Evidence from the Rental Market
Local pollution exposures disproportionately impact minority households, but the root causes remain unclear. This study conducts a correspondence experiment on a major online housing platform to test whether housing discrimination constrains minority access to housing options in markets with significant sources of airborne chemical toxics. We find that renters with African American or Hispanic/LatinX names are 41% less likely than renters with White names to receive responses for properties in low-exposure locations. We find no evidence of discriminatory constraints in high-exposure locations, indicating that discrimination increases relative access to housing choices at elevated exposure risk.
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Copy CitationPeter Christensen, Ignacio Sarmiento-Barbieri, and Christopher Timmins, "Housing Discrimination and the Toxics Exposure Gap in the United States: Evidence from the Rental Market," NBER Working Paper 26805 (2020), https://doi.org/10.3386/w26805.Download Citation
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Published Versions
Peter Christensen & Ignacio Sarmiento-Barbieri & Christopher Timmins, 2022. "Housing Discrimination and the Toxics Exposure Gap in the United States: Evidence from the Rental Market," The Review of Economics and Statistics, vol 104(4), pages 807-818. citation courtesy of 
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