Migration and sources of discrimination in a social context: Experimental evidence from 15 Latin American countries

This paper considers two types of statistical discrimination: individual (productivity) and compo- sitional (team fit). We conduct a large-scale correspondence study in 15 Latin American countries in the context of sports to test their influence on individual behavior. We send over 10,000 applications to male amateur soccer clubs and ask them to participate in a practice session. Each club receives one application, randomly varying the applicant’s origin and signals about individual and compositional productivity. We find no evidence of discrimination against immigrants overall, but we observe het- erogeneity that is consistent with individual statistical discrimination. Productivity signals have no significant influence. • We test discrimination against immigrants with 10,000+ applications in 15 Latin American countries Overall, we find no discrimination against immigrants • We find group differences by origin, which penalize Asians and favor Europeans, in line with a form of individual statistical discrimination • Productivity signals do not affect invitation outcomes