Essays in ethnic discrimination in labor markets.

Summary This doctoral thesis aims to contribute to the debate on the origin of ethnic discrimination, by focusing on the population of African immigrants in France and on that of African-Americans in the United States. Specifically, by analyzing French and American microeconomic data, it identifies the existence of discrimination based on the principle of employer and consumer preferences and their effect on the weakening of the economic situation of these two minority groups. It establishes the importance of indirect discrimination on the part of consumers, and suggests that it is essential to know the origins of ethnic discrimination in order to establish public policies capable of effectively combating this phenomenon. The first chapter offers a descriptive analysis of the access of working people according to their geographical origins to customer-facing jobs in France. It shows that immigrants in France, and African immigrants in particular, have less access to jobs in contact with the public. In order to analyze whether consumers play a role in this underrepresentation, the second chapter formulates a test strategy to distinguish between consumer and employer discrimination. The existence of these two sources of discrimination against African immigrants is then proven through the use of the French population census. Using the previous test strategy, the third chapter reveals the presence of this source of discrimination against African-Americans in the United States.