Name matters! The cost of having a foreign-sounding name in the Swedish private housing market
Both immigration and a troubling housing deficit have increased rapidly in Sweden over the past 20 years. In this internet-based field experiment, we investigated whether there exists discrimination in the Swedish private rental housing market based on the names of apartment seekers. We used a corre...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2022-01-01
|
| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9176839/?tool=EBI |
| _version_ | 1811251399888994304 |
|---|---|
| author | Hemrin Molla Caroline Rhawi Elina Lampi |
| author_facet | Hemrin Molla Caroline Rhawi Elina Lampi |
| author_sort | Hemrin Molla |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Both immigration and a troubling housing deficit have increased rapidly in Sweden over the past 20 years. In this internet-based field experiment, we investigated whether there exists discrimination in the Swedish private rental housing market based on the names of apartment seekers. We used a correspondent test by randomly submitting equivalent applications from four fictitious, highly educated, and seemingly “well-behaved” male applicants in response to a number of randomly selected private housing ads. Each advertising landlord received applications from two applicants with names signaling Swedish, Arab/Muslim, Eastern European, or East Asian ethnicity. Our results show that the person with a name associated with the dominant ethnic group received most callbacks from the landlords, while the persons with Eastern European- and East Asian sounding names, and especially the Arab/Muslim-sounding name, yielded significantly lower callback rates. Moreover, each applicant’s callback rates are about the same regardless of whom he was paired with, reinforcing our result that a person’s name clearly matters when applying for an apartment. The comparisons with previous discrimination research focusing on the Swedish housing market show that the situation for a male person with an Arabic/Muslim-sounding name has at least not improved in Sweden in the past decade. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T16:19:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3a833e2aeb3d4aa693eb62ae9aa2064a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T16:19:51Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-3a833e2aeb3d4aa693eb62ae9aa2064a2022-12-22T03:25:36ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032022-01-01176Name matters! The cost of having a foreign-sounding name in the Swedish private housing marketHemrin MollaCaroline RhawiElina LampiBoth immigration and a troubling housing deficit have increased rapidly in Sweden over the past 20 years. In this internet-based field experiment, we investigated whether there exists discrimination in the Swedish private rental housing market based on the names of apartment seekers. We used a correspondent test by randomly submitting equivalent applications from four fictitious, highly educated, and seemingly “well-behaved” male applicants in response to a number of randomly selected private housing ads. Each advertising landlord received applications from two applicants with names signaling Swedish, Arab/Muslim, Eastern European, or East Asian ethnicity. Our results show that the person with a name associated with the dominant ethnic group received most callbacks from the landlords, while the persons with Eastern European- and East Asian sounding names, and especially the Arab/Muslim-sounding name, yielded significantly lower callback rates. Moreover, each applicant’s callback rates are about the same regardless of whom he was paired with, reinforcing our result that a person’s name clearly matters when applying for an apartment. The comparisons with previous discrimination research focusing on the Swedish housing market show that the situation for a male person with an Arabic/Muslim-sounding name has at least not improved in Sweden in the past decade.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9176839/?tool=EBI |
| spellingShingle | Hemrin Molla Caroline Rhawi Elina Lampi Name matters! The cost of having a foreign-sounding name in the Swedish private housing market PLoS ONE |
| title | Name matters! The cost of having a foreign-sounding name in the Swedish private housing market |
| title_full | Name matters! The cost of having a foreign-sounding name in the Swedish private housing market |
| title_fullStr | Name matters! The cost of having a foreign-sounding name in the Swedish private housing market |
| title_full_unstemmed | Name matters! The cost of having a foreign-sounding name in the Swedish private housing market |
| title_short | Name matters! The cost of having a foreign-sounding name in the Swedish private housing market |
| title_sort | name matters the cost of having a foreign sounding name in the swedish private housing market |
| url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9176839/?tool=EBI |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hemrinmolla namemattersthecostofhavingaforeignsoundingnameintheswedishprivatehousingmarket AT carolinerhawi namemattersthecostofhavingaforeignsoundingnameintheswedishprivatehousingmarket AT elinalampi namemattersthecostofhavingaforeignsoundingnameintheswedishprivatehousingmarket |