Labor market discrimination of minorities? yes, but not in job offers

Bøg, Martin and Kranendonk, Erik (2011): Labor market discrimination of minorities? yes, but not in job offers.

Abstract

This paper presents evidence from a field experiment designed to evaluate the efficacy of anonymous application procedures. While the policy evaluation itself is of interest, more importantly the experiment provides a unique opportunity to detect race based differential treatment in a controlled market environment. Over a 6 month period we observe all applications sent in response to local public sector vacancies. We observe both the callback and the job oer decision. We compare decisions of recruiters when they can observe ethnic markers (control) with a treatment condition where ethnic markers are absent. We find a substantial differential in the callback decision. Interestingly, we do not find evidence for differential treatment in the job offer decision. A follow up experiment provides indications that recruiters respond strategically to the announcement of the results of the first experiment.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Field Experiment; Discrimination; Public Sector; Anonymous Application Procedures
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets > J45 - Public Sector Labor Markets; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J7 - Labor Discrimination > J71 - Discrimination; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J7 - Labor Discrimination > J78 - Public Policy; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C93 - Field Experiments

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