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arXiv · 2205.07128

Statistical discrimination and statistical informativeness

Matteo Escudé·Paula Onuchic·Ludvig Sinander·Quitzé Valenzuela-Stookey
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Abstract

We study the link between Phelps-Aigner-Cain-type statistical discrimination and familiar notions of statistical informativeness. Our central insight is that Blackwell's Theorem, suitably relabeled, characterizes statistical discrimination in terms of statistical informativeness. This delivers one-half of Chambers and Echenique's (2021) characterization of statistical discrimination as a corollary, and suggests a different interpretation of it: that discrimination is inevitable. In addition, Blackwell's Theorem delivers a number of finer-grained insights into the nature of statistical discrimination. We argue that the discrimination-informativeness link is quite general, illustrating with an informativeness characterization of a different type of discrimination.

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Matteo Escudé, Paula Onuchic, Ludvig Sinander, Quitzé Valenzuela-Stookey. 2022-05-14. Statistical discrimination and statistical informativeness. https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.07128

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