Date of Award

Spring 5-12-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Randall K. Filer

Second Advisor

Partha Deb

Academic Program Adviser

Randall K. Filer

Abstract

Access to reliable and stable housing is critical for the general population in urban areas and large cities. This paper tests for differential treatment in the rental housing market using an experiment conducted via e-mail for rental units advertised on-line. There are two emails with the same content, except for one shows the family status as childless and the other shows the family status as having an 18-month-old child. These emails were then sent to the landlords with an equal distribution. Apart from family status, there is no mention of socioeconomic status or any other identifying factors of the tenant. This study was conducted in the borough of Queens, New York. The findings of the study indicated a ten percentage point increase in responses when there were no children in the correspondence for both one bedroom and two bedroom apartments.

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