WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED FROM PAIRED TESTING IN HOUSING MARKETS?

Abstract

IntroductionIn-person paired testing is a methodology explicitly designed to observe differential treatment of equally qualified homeseekers in different groups-that is, to observe discrimination. Testing is also called auditing; we use the two terms as synonyms. Paired testing in housing markets was first conducted in the 1950s by partnerships between scholars and community groups. This type of testing then gained prominence during the 1960s and 1970s as localities, states, and the federal government passed fair housing legislation, private fair housing groups refined testing methods for enforcement purposes, and scholars discovered that this method could be used to study discriminatory behavior. Building on this foundation, testing has yielded extensive information on the nature, extent, and causes of discrimination in housing; it has, by documenting discrimination, provided influential support for fair housing legislation, such as the 1988 Fair Housing Amendments Act (FHAA); and it has been used extensively as a fair housing enforcement tool by private fair housing groups and by governmental civil rights agencies. In addition, the recent development of testing methods using the Internet, usually called correspondence tests or correspondence audits, has resulted in a large number of studies of housing discrimination in many different countries.This article begins with a detailed review of the testing method and of evidence about discrimination against African-American, Hispanic-American, and Asian-American homeseekers obtained from in-person paired testing in housing markets. This review is followed by an exploration of studies based on e-mail audits (some of which apply to other countries), an exploration of the link between paired testing and fair housing policy, and a brief review of the use of paired testing in some other markets. The focus is on the use of audits (tests) for research purposes.1 The next section examines testing methodology by reviewing the basics of paired testing, discussing audits that do not involve face-to-face contact (called correspondence audits), explaining how testing results can be used to study the causes of discrimination, and describing key methodological issues in the four national housing audit studies. Results from paired-testing studies in the housing market are presented in the subsequent section. To be specific, this section explores the incidence of discrimination, trends in discrimination, results concerning racial and ethnic steering, and evidence about the causes of discrimination. Appendix A provides further evidence from smaller paired-testing studies and from correspondence audits. The final section addresses paired testing and public policy, focusing on the link between paired testing and fair housing policy, but also providing a brief review of paired-testing research in markets other than the housing market. Appendix B describes the origins of fair housing audits.Testing MethodologyThe testing method can be used both to measure the incidence of discrimination and to test hypotheses about discrimination's causes. This section explains the methodology of both in-person paired testing and correspondence audits, shows how these methods can be used to test hypotheses about the causes of discrimination, and introduces the four national in-person audit studies in the United States.The Basics of In-Person Paired TestingIn-person paired-testing research involves six main steps. First, auditors are selected. Each auditor must be capable of playing the role of a typical homeseeker and not have unusual traits that might influence his or her treatment in the housing market relative to the auditor with whom he or she is paired.Second, auditors are trained about the role they should play during an audit. In most cases, they are instructed to inquire about an advertised unit and then to ask for additional suggestions from the housing provider. …