The State of Minority- and Women- Owned ... - Cleveland.com

Anecdotal Evidence of Disparities in the City of Cleveland’s Market Area
Table 8.1. Race, Sex and Procurement Category of Mail Survey Respondents
Group Construction CRS Services Commodities Total
African American 16 10 40 5 71
Hispanic 6 3 6 1 16
Asian 4 4 7 2 17
Native American 1 0 5 1 7
Minorities with Unknown
Race/Ethnicity
1 0 0 1 2
Non-minority Women 61 21 148 68 298
Total M/WBE 89 38 206 78 411
Non-minority Men 64 20 83 107 274
Total 153 58 289 185 685
Source: NERA mail surveys.
2. Willingness of Firms to Contract with the Public Sector
The probative value of anecdotal evidence of discrimination increases when it comes from active
businesses in the relevant geographic and procurement markets. The value of such evidence
increases further when it comes from firms that have actually worked or attempted to work for
the public sector within those markets. Such is the present case.
As shown below in Table 8.2, there is a strong linkage between the firms responding to our mail
survey and the public sector of the Northeast Ohio economy. All respondents operate
establishments in the relevant geographic and product markets. Moreover, significant numbers of
survey respondents have worked or attempted to do work for the City or other public entities in
the market area in the last five years. This is observed for virtually all types of M/WBEs and
non-M/WBEs in all procurement categories. Overall, more than half of M/WBEs and non-
M/WBEs have worked or attempted to work for the City or some other public entity in the
market area in the previous five years. This phenomenon is especially apparent for M/WBEs and
non-M/WBEs in Construction and CRS.
NERA Economic Consulting 268