Please read all instructions both before you begin the assignment and after you complete it.

In this writing assignment, you will critically analyze an article by Dina Gerdeman written in 2017 for Harvard Business School.

Steps:

Read the article, “Minorities Who ‘Whiten’ Job Resumes Get More Interviews” . (a) Does this strategic response on the part of minorities make sense given the findings of the papers we have   discussed in class?  (b) One of the most popular Asian last names according to the research paper the article is based on is “Zhang” . The salaries of state employees are public information in California. Go toTransparentCalifornia.comand enter the name “Zhang” . On a quick skim does  it appear that Asians with more “white” sounding first names make more money than Asians with

less “whitened” first names (you can sort by any one of the columns on  TransparentCalifornia.com by clicking on the column header)? What factors do you think accounts for any gap you might see?

2.   Consider the model of statistical discrimination with two groups and equal average productivities we discussed in class. Employers believe that people with whitened first names have a higher slope (beta) than folks with more ethnic first names and the employers mainly focus on college GPA as a signal of their true productivity. (a) Suppose changing your name (in either direction)   was costless. Why would individuals with high GPAs whiten their names while individuals with low GPAs might actually consider the reverse (i.e. switching their name to an ethnic name). (b) Suppose employers adopt a “name blind” hiring policy as suggested in the article. Discuss why   such a policy might make individuals with ethnic sounding first names invest more in improving their GPA compared to the time prior to “name blind” hiring policies.

3.   (a) Suppose the wages of individuals with ethnic sound names start lower than those with whitened names, but over time, for the high performers, the wages of ethnic first names are higher than those with whitened first names. Explain what model of discrimination from class might best fit this pattern? (b) Suppose for low end jobs, the resumes of ethnic names are read    more carefully, and the reverse is true for high end jobs (the resumes of whitened names are read more carefully). Explain what model of discrimination discussed in class best describes this.

4.    One striking aspect of the article you read is that firms that advertise DEI are nevertheless also likely to discriminate against ethnic sounding names. Suppose firms that engage in such behavior can either be taste based discriminators or statistical discriminators (with the standard assumptions we have assumed so far in class and consider the “whitened” names as the majority  and the “ethnic” names as the minority). How would you design a resume experiment to detect    which firm is engaging in what type of discrimination, despite their alleged appreciation of DEI.  Explain why your experiment would work including any assumptions you make.

Format:

1.   The informal word limit is 1000 words, but I will not take off points on this assignment if you are below/above that word count. This is only a rough length suggestion.

2.   You should answer each step as a separate question. You do not need to write an introduction or conclusion. You do not need to restate the questions I asked. Focus on the economics; I am not  going to judge the quality of your writing (so long as it is readable and relatively typo free), but rather the quality of the economic thought behind them. Write freely and then revise to express  your ideas clearly and concisely.

3.   You can write in the first person, using “I” statements.

4.   To make it easier for me to read, use Times New Roman 12 point font with double-spaced lines. You must submit either a .doc or .pdf file.

5.   Please follow APA style when discussing different racial/ethnic groups. Current APA style recommends using “South Asian people”, “South Asian Americans”, “South Asian folks”, etc. ,  rather than “South Asians”, for example. Use race/ethnicity in this way as a descriptor rather than as a noun for all groups. Additionally, always capitalize Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, etc. See  the document posted in the assignment instructions if you would like more explanation.

6.   You can cite any outside sources you use in Chicago, MLA, or whatever format you prefer. As long as I can find the source and read it myself, I won’t take off points for the style of your bibliography. Note that you should be able to complete this assignment without any outside sources.

7.   Grading: The points are distributed across questions as follows. There is partial credit within questions, but no partial credit will be given for answers without evidence or careful reasoning. I will follow the below rubric. There is no partial credit within any of the subsections unless otherwise stated. I will take off 12.5 points (50%) for late submissions and I reserve the right to  take off additional points for essays that did not follow the formatting guidelines.

Academic Integrity: You are not permitted to discuss this writing assignment with anyone: other students, private tutors, friends, family, etc. If you desperately need to talk about your essay, I recommend thinking out-loud to a pet or a small child. You are permitted to use other written sources, but you need to cite them in the format of your choice. I strongly discourage against doing this because these questions are not easily searched, and you will likely end up plagiarizing (citing something can still be plagiarism     when the ideas/language are copied). Your writing assignment will be automatically submitted to Turnitin when you submit it on Canvas. I will give a zero grade and report an Academic Integrity violation for anyone whose essay is similar to any written source or the essay of another student.

Late Assignments: The assignment closes at 8pm on Canvas. Please, if you are a procrastinator, treat the deadline as earlier than that. We cannot accept assignments on email. We will take off 12.5 points out  of 25 for essays submitted within 24 hours of the deadline and cannot accept assignments after 24 hrs.