Replication Data for: Evidence from Lagos on Discrimination across Ethnic and Class Identities in Informal Trade

This paper investigates the determinants of price discrimination in the rice market in one neighborhood of Lagos, Nigeria. There has been little empirical study of how ethnicity and class shape economic outcomes in informal market interactions. We conduct an audit experiment – one of the first audit experiments in Africa – seeking to address this gap. We experimentally manipulate class, with confederates presenting as different classes; this may be the first audit study to take this approach. This is also one of the first in-person audits to have multiple transactions for each buyer and seller, thus allowing for the use of buyer and seller fixed effects. We find little evidence that, all else equal, sharing an ethnicity on its own influences market treatment. Class, however, does have substantial effects, at least for non-coethnics. High class non-coethnics receive higher prices per unit than low class non-coethnics. Our findings suggest that the boundaries of group identity appear to be at least partially defined by class in the informal economy.

本文针对尼日利亚拉各斯某社区的稻米市场，探究价格歧视的影响因素。目前针对非正式市场互动中，种族与阶层如何塑造经济结果的实证研究尚不多见。为此，我们开展了一项审计实验——这是非洲地区首批同类审计实验之一——以期填补这一研究空白。我们通过实验操控阶层变量，由实验同伙扮演不同阶层的身份；这或许是首个采用此类研究设计的审计研究。本研究同时也是首批针对每一位买卖双方开展多笔交易的线下审计研究之一，因此得以引入买方与卖方固定效应模型进行分析。研究结果显示，在其他条件不变的前提下，仅种族匹配本身并不会对市场交易待遇产生显著影响。但阶层确实会对市场待遇产生显著影响，至少在非同族群体中如此。非同族群体中的高阶层买家，其每单位商品需支付的价格要高于低阶层买家。本研究结果表明，在非正式经济场景中，群体身份的边界至少在一定程度上由阶层所界定。