No Evidence of Increased Discrimination During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 in early 2020, several studies have reported increased levels of anti-immigrant sentiment. While crises and the related uncertainty form a potential breeding ground for xenophobia, up to date, we do not know whether these negative sentiments and attitudes have translated into more structural discrimination, especially in a market-based setting. In this paper, we investigate whether the Covid-19 crisis has affected the level of discrimination previously observed in the Swiss housing market. To this end, we repeat a correspondence experiment – which originally took place in 2018 – during the spring of 2020. If anything, we find that discrimination slightly decreased in 2020 as opposed to 2018. We argue that, in a market-based setting, changes in the cost of discrimination likely outweigh any changes in xenophobic sentiments. Indeed, we find that the demand for rental apartments decreased significantly in 2020 – as demonstrated by an important decrease in the number of moves – making it more costly for owners to discriminate against minority candidates. While every incidence of discrimination is one too many, our evidence suggests that the Covid-19 pandemic is not associated with more substantive levels of discrimination.