CULTURE, INFORMATION, AND SCREENING DISCRIMINATION

We show that discrimination can occur even when it is common knowledge that underlying group characteristics do not differ and when employer s do not prefer same-group candidates. When employers can judge job ap plicants' unknown qualities better when candidates belong to the same group and hire the best prospect from a large pool of applicants, the top applicant is likely to have the same background as the employer. T he model has policy, empirical, and experimental implications. For exa mple, the model predicts that ''screening discrimination'' is more lik ely to occur and persist in sectors in which underlying quality is imp ortant but difficult to observe, there are numerous applicants, interv iewing (screening) is relatively cheap, and applicants have to acquire job-specific skills.