Racial Discrimination in the Workplace Does Market Structure Make a Difference

For some time, social scientists have debated whether market competition reduces racial discrimination. The failure to recognize that racial discrimination may be practiced not only in hiring but also in many different ways has led to analyses that are less than complete. Workers may be discriminated against at the hiring stage and in wages, raises, promotions, and other more subtle forms of discrimination once on the job. Using the structure of the firms’ product market as the measure of concentration, I find that increased competition has no impact on the number of discrimination reports, racial wage discrimination, or the racial demographics of the workforce. Business competition cannot be relied on to reduce or combat racial discrimination, as some have insisted.