Jonas Radbruch, Humboldt University in Berlin

"Small Sample Diversity"

Abstract

Diversity goals are typically defined at the level of an organization but implemented through decentralized decisions by individual evaluators observing only a small subset of the candidate pool. In this paper, we analyze how organizational diversity concerns interact with the small-sample nature of candidate selection. We use data on more than 40,000 admission interviews of a merit-based scholarship program, where each evaluator assesses a randomly assigned subset of candidates. Conditional on own ability, a candidate's selection probability is substantially reduced by higher-ability candidates assigned to the same evaluator. This effect is consistently twice as large within than across diversity-relevant candidate characteristics including gender, migration background, and socioeconomic status. To structure the analysis of potential mechanisms, we develop a theoretical framework showing that these effects can arise both from a group-specific learning mechanism and from the application of soft quotas within small candidate samples. Additional  analyses indicate that learning alone cannot fully account for the empirical patterns, pointing to a role for "small-sample quotas”.

Joint work with Andreas Grunewald, Amelie Schiprowski, and Jakob Wegmann.

For more information about Jonas Radbruch and his interesting work - link to his website.

Contact person: Robert Mahlstedt