Discrimination Against Gay and Transgender People in Latin America: A Corresponding Study in the Rental Housing Market

ABBATE, NICOLÁS; BERNIELL, INÉS; COLEFF, JOAQUÍN; LAGUINGE, LUIS; MACHELETT, MARGARITA; MARCHIONNI, MARIANA; PEDRAZZI, JULIÁN; PINTO, MARÍA FLORENCIA

Córdoba

Congreso; Reunión Anual de la Asociación Argentina de Economía Política; 2022

Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

We assess the extent of discrimination against gay and transgender individuals in the rental housing markets of four Latin American countries. We conducted a large-scale field experiment building on the correspondence study methodology to examine interactions between property managers and fictitious couples engaged in searches in a major online rental housing platform. We find stronger discriminatory constraints on trans couples compared to gay male and heterosexual couples: trans couples are 18% (26%) less likely to receive responses (positive responses) than heterosexual couples. We also assess whether the evidence is consistent with models of taste-based discrimination or statistical discrimination by comparing call-back rates for couples who signal or not a high socioeconomic status (high-SES). We find no significant effect of the signal on call-back rates for heterosexual or gay male couples, but when trans couples signal a high SES their call-back rate (positive response rate) increases 37% (49%). Our results suggest the presence of discrimination against trans couples in the Latin American online rental housing market, which—at least in part—seems to be due to statistical discrimination. Moreover, we find no evidence on heterosexual couples being favoured over gay male couples, nor evidence of discriminatory constraints consistent with statistical discrimination for gay male or heterosexual couples.