Conrad Miller is an Associate Professor at UC Berkeley at the Haas School of Business and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is a labor economist, and researches inequality between social groups with a focus on race and gender. Previously he worked as an assistant professor in the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
His research is centered on three research questions: (1) what role do firms play in producing labor market inequality between social groups? (2) what are the consequences of discrimination? and (3) what are the effects of policy responses to discrimination?
Professor Miller earned a B.A. in economics and a B.S. in mathematics at Stanford University in 2009 and his Ph.D. at MIT in 2014. He studied as a postdoctoral research associate in the industrial relations section at Princeton University from 2014-2015.
Student Lecture, 13 April 2023
Class Disparities and Discrimination in Traffic Stops
This presentation focuses on new research on the role that economic class plays in traffic stops, the most common type of police-civilian interaction. During traffic stops, police are more likely to search low-income motorists for contraband. Yet police are more likely to find contraband in their searches of high-income motorists. We will discuss what these patterns tell us about policing and whether they reflect class discrimination.
Faculty Lecture, 14 April 2023
Class Disparities and Discrimination in Traffic Stops and Searches
We document class disparities and discrimination in the incidence of traffic stops and searches. During stops, troopers are more likely to search low economic status (ES) motorists for contraband, where we infer ES using vehicle attributes or residential neighborhood. Yet searches of low ES motorists are less likely to yield contraband. Guided by a simple model of trooper behavior, we also find evidence that low ES motorists are more likely to be pursued in pretext stops. We develop and implement a test for whether troopers engage in class discrimination that uses motorists stopped in multiple vehicles conveying different ES signals. Class discrimination explains at least 25% of the disparity in search and 68% of the disparity in pretext stops. We present suggestive evidence that the hassle associated with successful searches of high ES motorists may deter troopers.