Silva studies the mechanisms that perpetuate (or mitigate) group-based inequality in the labor market, with a focus on social networks and employer discrimination. Through her current projects, she examines how employers reward the referrals of black and white job applicants, the relationship between employers' racial attitudes and their hiring behavior, the relationship between family background and employment histories, and the determinants of "observed race"—that is, how people are racially classified by others. She is also working on a series of studies investigating how different ways of framing immigration affect attitudes towards immigration policy.