Question

Alejandro is a computer programmer employed by XYZ Tech Corp. He is Hispanic. He gets an offer from another company that is trying to lure him away from XYZ and is willing to pay him a higher salary than XYZ pays him. Alejandro asks his boss whether the company is willing to match the offer to keep him at XYZ. His boss says, "Don't let the door hit you on your way out. Why did the boss fail to match the other firm's offer?
a. statistical discrimination
b. compensating differential
c. taste-based discrimination
d. not clear why XYZ did not match the other firm's offer

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answer from the options given is D)

It is not clear why XYZ did not match the other firm's offer.

Explanation:

Alejandro is already an employee at XYZ Tech Corp. If his boss is willing to let him go, it may be because they are unable to match the higher salary being offered by the competition.

Another theory is that Alejandro is no longer very productive in the current company. There is a myriad of possible reasons. However, none of these are hinted in the question.

What we know is that he is Hispanic, He is a computer programmer and he got a better offer which his current company is unable to match.

We cannot posit that this is an issue of statistical discrimination. Why? We don't know that his current boss is not Hispanic as well.

A) Statistical Discrimination arises when agents make use of an individual's measurable trait to draw conclusions regarding another characteristic important to the interaction but more difficult to detect. This clearly is not the case.

B) When the factors surrounding a job suddenly become more adverse, the employee can reject such a change. Sometimes a company may offer such employee(s) additional money to their salary for them to accept such changes. This additional money or benefit is called Compensating Differential.

This also is clearly not the case.

C) Taste-based discrimination simply examines an employer's disposition to hiring a minority applicant. This theory posits that the prejudice of an employer towards people from a minority group will ultimately affect hiring decisions.

Again, this is not the picture painted in the above scenario.

So we are left with option D as the correct answer.

Cheers!