ArticleThe quarterly journal of economics2024
Discrimination in Multi-Phase Systems: Evidence from Child Protection.
Article in The quarterly journal of economics, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Comparison of trends in CPS reports of child maltreatment and child maltreatment-related mortality across time, place and race/ethnicity.American journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- The Effects of Socioeconomic Contextual Factors on Racial Differences in Foster Care Placement Stability.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Building Nondiscriminatory Algorithms in Selected Data.American economic review. Insights · 2025Article
- Foster Care Entry and Later Academic Achievement Among Infants Involved With Child Protective Services.Child developmentArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
We develop empirical tools for studying discrimination in multi-phase systems, and apply them to the setting of foster care placement by child protective services. Leveraging the quasi-random assignment of two sets of decision-makers-initial hotline call screeners and subsequent investigators-we study how unwarranted racial disparities arise and propagate through this system. Using a sample of over 200,000 maltreatment allegations, we find that calls involving Black children are 55% more likely to result in foster care placement than calls involving white children with the same potential for future maltreatment in the home. Call screeners account for up to 19% of this unwarranted disparity, with the remainder due to investigators. Unwarranted disparity is concentrated in cases with potential for future maltreatment, suggesting that white children may be harmed by "under-placement" in high-risk situations.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.