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Essays on Information and Discrimination
Korlyakova, Darya ; Bauer, Michal (advisor) ; Lergetporer, Philipp (referee) ; Haaland, Ingar (referee)
Darya Korlyakova In the first chapter, we study experimentally whether public beliefs about ethnic discrimination, an emotionally loaded issue, are shifted more by information from experts or from ordinary people. We also examine whether people are inclined to choose the most influential sources. For this purpose, we combine, in a novel design, the random provision of information from different sources with endogenous information acquisition from the same sources. We find that individuals update their beliefs most in response to information from experts, namely researchers studying ethnic minorities and human resource managers. Exogenous adjustments in beliefs do not induce changes in attitudes to ethnic minorities. Consistent with the strength of belief updating, more individuals choose information from experts over information from ordinary people. This result suggests that, in the aggregate, people behave rationally as they favor a source that is perceived to be relatively accurate. The findings have implications for information-dissemination policies. In the second chapter, we shift the focus from the general public to racial minorities and study the effects of information provision on minorities' beliefs and behavior. There is a long-standing concern that expected discrimination discourages...
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Disclosure discrimination: an experiment focusing on communication in the hiring process
Badalyan, S. ; Korlyakova, Darya ; Rehák, Rastislav
We focus on communication among hiring team members and document the existence of discrimination in the disclosure of information about candidates. In particular, we conduct an online experiment with a nationally representative sample of Czech individuals who act as human resource assistants and hiring managers in our online labor market. The main novel feature of our experiment is the monitoring of information flow between human resource assistants and hiring managers. We exogenously manipulate candidates’ names to explore the causal effects of their gender and nationality on information that assistants select for managers. Our findings reveal that assistants disclose more information about family and less information about work for female candidates relative to male candidates. An in-depth analysis of the disclosed information suggests that gender stereotypes play an important role in this disclosure discrimination. Furthermore, assistants disclose less information about foreigners overall. This effect appears to be driven by the less attention assistants are willing to devote to the CVs of foreigners, measured by the extra effort to learn more about the candidates.
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Do pessimistic expectations about discrimination make minorities withdraw their effort? Causal evidence
Korlyakova, Darya
There is a long-standing concern that expected discrimination discourages minorities from exercising effort to succeed. Effort withdrawal could contribute to confirming negative stereotypes about minorities’ productivity and enduring disparities. This paper extends the findings of correlational research by exogenously manipulating individuals’ beliefs about discrimination against their group and exploring a causal link between perceived discrimination and individuals’ labor market behavior. For this purpose, we conduct an online experiment in the US with a diverse sample of 2,000 African Americans. We randomly assign individuals to two groups and inform one group about the frequency of discrimination against African Americans in a previous survey. To study the information effects on effort, we subsequently measure participants’ results on a math task. We document that most individuals initially overestimate discrimination against African Americans. The overestimation decreases strongly and significantly as a result of information provision. At the same time, treated individuals, males in particular, attempt and solve correctly fewer math problems compared to untreated individuals. Hence, our findings do not support the common concern that minorities’ inflated expectations about discrimination induce them to underperform.
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Learning about ethnic discrimination from different information sources
Korlyakova, Darya
We experimentally study whether public beliefs about ethnic discrimination, an emotionally loaded issue, are shifted more by information from experts or from ordinary people. We also examine whether people are inclined to choose the most influential sources. For this purpose, we combine, in a novel design, the random provision of information from different sources with endogenous information acquisition from the same sources. We find that individuals update their beliefs most in response to information from experts, namely researchers studying ethnic minorities and human resource managers. Exogenous adjustments in beliefs do not induce changes in attitudes to ethnic minorities. Consistent with the strength of belief updating, more individuals choose information from experts over information from ordinary people. This result suggests that, in the aggregate, people behave rationally as they favor a source that is perceived to be relatively accurate. The findings have implications for information dissemination policies.
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Male-female income inequality in the labour market of Czech Republic
Krejčů, Dominika ; Macáková, Libuše (advisor) ; Korlyakova, Darya (referee)
Equality of all people without regard to their race, religion or sex is one of the basic ideological principles of democratic states in contemporary Europe. Yet it is commonly known fact that men and women are not considered as equal in all spheres of life. This thesis deals with gender discrimination in the labour market of Czech Republic, with an emphasis on male-female income difference. The main aim of this work is to determine and compare the influence of sex, education and profession on the salary amount and male-female income difference. The statistical method of regression analysis (OLS) is used to achieve this task. General terminology, sociological concepts and economic explanatory models concerning gender discrimination are explained in the first part of this thesis, together with the brief history of female position in the Czech (Czechoslovakian) labour market. The second part evaluates the extent of influence of sex, education and profession on the salary amount.
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Corporate governance and its increased role in the period of global financial crisis with the focus on European region
Korlyakova, Darya ; Taušer, Josef (advisor) ; Žamberský, Pavel (referee)
In this thesis we analyzed methods contributing to corporate government improvement in order to enhance companies' efficiency, thereby preventing their bankruptcy during times of crisis. In the theoretical part we defined corporate governance, described its elements, influential factors and models. Particular attention was paid to the concept of effective governance and recommendations aimed at its achievement. Overall it was discovered that to be successful company should have such corporate governance system which will ensure maximization of shareholder value, respect for stakeholder rights, balance of strategically important long-term goals, effective supervision over managers' actions, regular audits and reliability of their results and transparent and frequent Board reports. In the historical part we gave an overview of main corporate governance developments which took place from the moment the first corporations emerged till the global financial crisis outbroke (its early outcomes are included as well). In the course of time the following findings were reached: owners should be involved in management of an organization, managers should act in best stakeholders' interests, remuneration schemes should be well thought-out, auditor and the Board itself should be independent, financial information should be adequately disclosed, etc. In the second chapter we examined corporate governance regulation in Europe as thesis topic implies focus on this region. In addition to the above mentioned corporate governance improvements regulatory measures are aimed at strengthening the role of non-executive directors, unambiguous description of auditor's and Board's duties, higher quality of information provided to investors, achieving gender balance on Boards. In the third chapter the analysis of case study was carried out. Northern Rock, which was a very successful bank for a long time, suddenly asked the Bank of England for financial support in September 2007 what immediately caused depositor run and 32 percent drop in its share price. Despite the fact that it was looking for a buyer for several months it failed to find the one who would be able to adequately compensate taxpayers, therefore in February 2008 it was nationalized. Several factors contributed to its downfall, however the main role is assigned to poor corporate governance whose improvement requires the undertaking of following measures: stricter criteria for auditor's independence, remuneration based on performance and aimed at long-term commitment, promotion of stakeholder activism, limitations on risks and creation of "honesty motivational" corporate culture. The principal conclusion was that good corporate governance should contribute to company's forward movement but at the same time it should respect accountability framework.
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