In this study, we argue that racial discrimination exists in the credit markets in Latin American countries, particularly in Mexico, despite the subject of ethnicity being taboo. We have designed and conducted an experiment to verify the existence of racial discrimination in the access to the credit market in Mexico. In particular, because of the nature of the experiment, we have concentrated on the first step of the credit application process, namely, the inquiry process. We hired three professional pairs of Mexican actors that consisted of one white, Spanish member and one dark-skinned, mestizo member. These pairs impersonated small entrepreneurs with the same qualities and creditworthiness. The actors visited close to 300 randomly selected commercial banking branches in Mexico City to apply for credit. The results provide evidence of discriminatory behavior against dark-skinned Mexicans even after controlling for features such as their creditworthiness, annual sales, and industry as well as loan officers’ demographics and styles, among others.

在这项研究中，我们认为种族歧视存在于拉丁美洲国家的信贷市场，尤其是在墨西哥，尽管种族问题是禁忌。我们设计并进行了一项实验，以验证在进入墨西哥信贷市场方面是否存在种族歧视。特别是由于实验的性质，我们集中在信用申请流程的第一步，即查询流程。我们聘请了三对专业的墨西哥演员，其中包括一名白人西班牙成员和一名黑皮肤混血成员。这些对冒充具有相同品质和信誉的小企业家。演员们走访了墨西哥城近 300 家随机选择的商业银行分行申请信贷。