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Judicial and Agency Enforcement of Nondiscrimination Laws

Each branch of the federal government has a role in enforcing the federal nondiscrimination statutes. Congress creates and amends the statutes; the federal courts apply the law when parties file lawsuits under the statutes; and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a federal agency, administers and investigates each charge filed under the statutes and litigates cases of importance. This dissertation empirically analyzes the roles of the federal courts and the EEOC. In Chapter 1, I provide empirical evidence that supports the Supreme Courts vicariously liability standard for supervisor harassment, but not the lower courts expansion of an affirmative defense to liability when a victim does not report: employees who are harassed by their supervisor and those who report the harassment are statistically significantly more likely to experience an adverse action following the harassment as compared to those harassed by their coworker and those who do not report. In Chapter 2, I then addresses the concern over the number of frivolous charges filed with the EEOC and federal courts, as expressed by the Supreme Court in University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar. This chapter empirically shows for the first time that federal court decisions can increase or decrease the presence of frivolous charges filed with the EEOC depending on the nature of the case (liberal or strict). I conclude with Chapter 3 and provide empirical evidence that suggests that higher rates of race charges filed with the EEOC in and industry and in a state have a positive effect on black male wages in that industry and state.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03222015-161059
Date06 April 2015
CreatorsDruhan Bullock, Virginia Blair
ContributorsJoni Hersch, W. Kip Viscusi, Kevin Stack, Michael Selmi
PublisherVANDERBILT
Source SetsVanderbilt University Theses
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03222015-161059/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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