Detecting discrimination in the hiring process: evidence from an Internet-based search channel
Year: 2007
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This paper uses data from an Internet-based CV database to investigate how factors which may be used as a basis for discrimination, such as the searchers ethnicity, gender, age and employment status, affect the number of contacts they receive from firms. Since we have access to essentially the same information as the firms, we can handle the problems associated with nobserved heterogeneity better than most existing studies of discrimination. We find that, even when we control for other differences, searchers who have non-Nordic names, are old or unemployed receive significantly fewer contacts. Moreover, we find that this matters for the hiring outcome: Searchers who receive more contacts have a higher probability of actually getting hired.
Authors: Stefan Eriksson, Jonas Lagerström
Institutions: Uppsala University, Åbo Akademi University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3121868811