Discrimination in Access to Housing: A Test on Urban Areas in Metropolitan France

Julie Le Gallo (1) , Yannick L'Horty (2) , Loic Du Parquet (3, 4) , Pascale Petit (2)

1 CESAER - Centre d'Economie et de Sociologie Rurales Appliquées à l'Agriculture et aux Espaces Ruraux
2 ERUDITE - Equipe de Recherche sur l’Utilisation des Données Individuelles en lien avec la Théorie Economique
3 TEPP - Travail, Emploi et Politiques Publiques
4 GAINS - Groupe d'Analyse des Itinéraires et des Niveaux Salariaux

We measure the extent of discrimination in access to rental housing in the private sector using a test in the 50 largest urban areas in Metropolitan France, covering several grounds of discrimination: age, origin, place of residence and combinations thereof. The protocol consisted of sending, between June and December 2016, five fictitious applications in response to a selection of 5,000 advertisements for private rental housing spread throughout Metropolitan France. We check whether discrimination in access to housing depends on the characteristics of the applicants, those of the advertiser and those of the local context. We do not highlight any discrimination based on the applicant’s age. We do find a positive effect of reporting living in low-rent housing or in a housing estate. We also find significant discrimination according to origin, which penalises applicants whose surnames and first names indicate a North African or African origin.

Mots clés: discrimination; housing; controlled experiment; testing

Domaines: Economies et finances

Julie Le Gallo, Yannick L'Horty, Loic Du Parquet, Pascale Petit. Discrimination in Access to Housing: A Test on Urban Areas in Metropolitan France. Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, 2020, 513, pp.27-45. ⟨10.24187/ecostat.2019.513.2004⟩. ⟨hal-02537864⟩