Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the federal government, as well as local and state governments and non-profit organizations, have attempted to eliminate housing discrimination by enforcing fair housing laws. This strategy, however, requires prospective tenants to actively report discrimination. In this paper, we conduct a randomized field experiment to examine if being sent a public service announcement (PSA) about fair housing laws affects a landlord's propensity to discriminate against prospective black tenants in the early stages of the rental housing process. We find landlords who are sent a PSA are more likely to respond to black clients one day and one week after treatment, though the effect appears to dissipate quickly.

自 1968 年《民权法案》通过以来，联邦政府以及地方和州政府以及非营利组织一直试图通过执行公平住房法来消除住房歧视。然而，这一策略要求潜在租户积极报告歧视。在本文中，我们进行了一项随机实地实验，以检查收到有关公平住房法的公共服务公告 (PSA) 是否会影响房东在租赁住房过程的早期阶段歧视潜在黑人租户的倾向。我们发现收到 PSA 的房东更有可能在治疗后一天和一周对黑人客户做出回应，尽管这种影响似乎很快就会消散。