Age Discrimination across the Business Cycle

Gordon Dahl and Matthew Knepper

No 15760, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We test whether age discrimination rises during recessions using two complementary analyses. EEOC microdata reveal that age-related firing and hiring charges rise by 3.4% and 1.4%, respectively, for each percentage point increase in a state-industry’s monthly unemployment. Though the opportunity cost of filing falls, the fraction of meritorious claims increases—a sufficient condition for rising discrimination under mild assumptions. Second, we repurpose data from hiring correspondence studies conducted across different cities and time periods during the recovery from the Great Recession. Each percentage point increase in local unemployment reduces the callback rate for older versus younger women by 15%.

Keywords: Age discrimination; Recessions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 J64 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-dem and nep-mac
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Related works:
Journal Article: Age Discrimination across the Business Cycle (2023)
Working Paper: Age Discrimination across the Business Cycle (2020)
Working Paper: Age Discrimination across the Business Cycle (2020)
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