We develop an empirical Bayes ranking procedure that assigns ordinal grades to noisy measurements, balancing the information content of the assigned grades against the expected frequency of ranking errors. Applying the method to a massive correspondence experiment, we grade the race and gender contact gaps of 97 U.S. employers, the identities of which we disclose for the first time. The grades are presented alongside measures of uncertainty about each firm’s contact gap in an accessible report card that is easily adaptable to other settings where ranks and levels are of simultaneous interest.


View Interactive Research Brief

More on this topic

BFI Working Paper·Oct 14, 2026

Indirect Variational Inference: Applications to Earnings Dynamics

Neele L. Balke, Stéphane Bonhomme, and Thibaut Lamadon
Topics: Economic Mobility & Poverty, Employment & Wages
BFI Working Paper·Oct 9, 2026

The Gendered Impacts of Perceived Skin Tone: Evidence from African American Siblings in 1870–1940

Ran Abramitzky, Jacob Conway, Roy Mill, and Luke C.D. Stein
Topics: Economic Mobility & Poverty, Employment & Wages
BFI Working Paper·Oct 6, 2026

Consumption, Savings, and Earnings Responses to Financial Windfalls

Rajashri Chakrabarti, Philippe d'Astous, Kory Kroft, Sheisha Kulkarni, Vyacheslav Mikhed, Matthew Notowidigdo, Sahil Raina, and Barry Scholnick
Topics: Employment & Wages