Disability Discrimination in the Rental Housing Market – A Field Experiment on Blind Tenants

Although discrimination against disabled people has been investigated in the labor market, the housing market has received less attention in this regard. This paper focuses on the latter market and investigates whether blind tenants assisted by guide dogs are discriminated against in the rental housing market. The data are collected through a field experiment in which written applications were sent in response to online advertisements posted by different types of advertisers. I find statistically significant evidence that one type of online advertiser, that is, the apartment owner (i.e., a person who advertises and rents out his/her own apartment(s) on his/her own), discriminates against blind tenants, because of the presence of the guide dog, not because of the disability. According to the legislation, this behavior qualifies as illegal discrimination.