What Do Blind Evaluations Reveal? How Discrimination Shapes Representation and Quality

Reject and Resubmit,  Review of Economic Studies

Concealing candidate identities during evaluations ("blinding") is often proposed to combat discrimination, yet its effects on the composition and quality of selected candidates, as well as its underlying mechanisms, remain unclear. I conduct a field experiment at an international academic conference, randomly assigning all 657 submitted papers to two blind and two non-blind reviewers (245 total) and collecting paper quality measures---citations and publication statuses five years later. I find that blinding significantly shrinks gaps in reviewer scores and acceptances by student status and institution rank, with no significant effects by gender. These increases in representation are not at the expense of quality: papers selected under blind review are of comparable quality to those selected non-blind. To understand mechanisms, I run a second field experiment that again implements blind and non-blind review, and elicits reviewer predictions of future submission outcomes. I combine my experiments to estimate a model of reviewer scores that uses blind scores to decompose non-blind disparities into distinct forms of discrimination. I find that the nature of discrimination differs by trait: student score gaps are explained by inaccurate beliefs about paper quality (inaccurate statistical discrimination) and alternative objectives (such as favoring authors whose acceptance benefits others), while institution gaps are attributable to residual drivers such as animus.

Winner of the 2023 UChicago Third Year Paper George S. Tolley Prize

Using a Field Experiment to Understand Skill Formation During Adolescence

with Juanna Joensen, John List, and Anya Samek

Measuring Racial Educational Disparities Over Time Amongst Top Achievers

with Uditi Karna, Andrew Simon, Min Sok Lee, and John List
Nature (Feb 2025)

Research brief
Public-access view version

Educational disparities remain a key contributor to increasing social and wealth inequalities. To address this, researchers and policymakers have focused on average differences between racial groups or differences among students who are falling behind. This focus potentially leads to educational triage, diverting resources away from high-achieving students, including those from racial minorities. Here we focus on the ‘racial excellence gap’—the difference in the likelihood that students from racial minorities (Black and Hispanic) reach the highest levels of academic achievement compared with their non-minority (white and Asian) peers. There is a shortage of evidence that systematically measures the magnitude of the excellence gap and how it evolves. Using longitudinal, statewide, administrative data, we document eight facts regarding the excellence gap from third grade (typically ages 8–9) to high school (typically ages 14–18), link the stability of excellence gaps and student backgrounds, and assess the efficacy of public policies. We show that excellence gaps in maths and reading are evident by the third grade and grow slightly over time, especially for female students. About one third of the gap is explained by a student’s socioeconomic status, and about one tenth is explained by the school environment. Top-achieving racial minority students are also less likely to persist in excellence as they progress through school. Moreover, state accountability policies that direct additional resources to reduce non-race-based inequality had minimal effects on the racial excellence gaps. Documenting these patterns is an important step towards eliminating excellence gaps and removing the ‘racial glass ceiling’.

PhD Courses:

Behavioral Economics, University of Chicago, Booth School of Business (Fall 2022) - Teaching Assistant for Professors Joshua Dean and Devin Pope

Masters Courses:

The Scale-Up Effect in Public Policy, University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy (Fall 2021) - Teaching Assistant for Professor Dana Suskind

Undergraduate Courses:

Introduction to Industrial Organization, University of Chicago (Spring 2022 and 2023) - Teaching Assistant for Professor Michael Dinerstein
Experimental Economics, University of Chicago (Winter 2023) - Teaching Assistant for Professor John List
Experiments in Organizations, University of California San Diego (Spring 2023) - Guest Lecturer for Professor Anya Samek

High School Courses:

Experimental Economics, University of Chicago Summer School (Fall 2019, Summer 2025) - Guest Lecturer for Min Sok Lee
Experimental Economics, University of Chicago Summer School (Summer 2025) - Guest Lecturer for Fulya Ersoy
Experimental Economics, University of Chicago Summer School (Summer 2019) - Guest Lecturer for Professor John List