Authors: Hafizah Ismail, Helen X. H. Bao
Year: 2026
Status: Work in Progress
PDF: Available upon request — hxb20@cam.ac.uk
Research line: Exclusion and spatial inequality in housing markets
Abstract
We design and conduct a correspondence experiment in the rental housing market of WP Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, sending approximately 4,000 inquiries to listings on Mudah.com across a factorial design that varies applicant ethnicity (Bumiputera, Chinese-Malaysian, Indian-Malaysian, foreigner), gender, age, and a behavioural-intervention information treatment. Preliminary results (Jan–Feb 2025, n=1,104) document a sharp ethnic gradient in response rates — Bumiputera 69%, Chinese-Malaysian 62%, Indian-Malaysian 53%, foreigner 52% — with discrimination operating primarily through non-response rather than explicit refusal. The information treatment, in which the applicant unilaterally discloses occupation, employer, and intended tenancy duration, [REDUCES / FAILS TO REDUCE / SELECTIVELY MITIGATES] this gap. The paper contributes to the small but growing correspondence-test evidence on housing markets outside the OECD and provides experimental complement to forthcoming transaction-data work on Malaysian housing-market exclusion.
Keywords: housing discrimination; correspondence experiment; ethnicity; behavioural intervention; Malaysia.