Do future public servants have more anti-discriminatory behavior?

Abstract

Many studies find that public sector employees are less discriminatory than private sector. One possible explanation for these differences is that people with public service training are less discriminatory. Using a laboratory experiment we compare how undergraduate and graduate students from a large southwestern university rate unique randomized clerical resumes by the race of the applicant. We find that students with public sector training at the undergraduate or graduate level tend to favor resumes with distinctively Black names, while non-government students slightly favor resumes with non-Black names. On average, students with public sector training or degrees rate resumes with Black names between 6% and 12% higher than do students with business or other training. There is no difference among those with and without public sector training in the time spent on resumes with distinctively Black names compared to those without.