Did Age Discrimination Protections Help Older Workers Weather the Great Recession?

David Neumark and Patrick Button ()

No 19216, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We examine whether stronger age discrimination laws at the state level moderated the impact of the Great Recession on older workers. We use a difference-in-difference-in-differences strategy to compare older workers in states with stronger and weaker laws, to their younger counterparts, both before, during, and after the Great Recession. We find very little evidence that stronger age discrimination protections helped older workers weather the Great Recession, relative to younger workers. The evidence sometimes points in the opposite direction, with stronger state age discrimination protections associated with more adverse effects of the Great Recession on older workers. We suggest that this may be because during an experience like the Great Recession, severe labor market disruptions make it difficult to discern discrimination, weakening the effects of stronger state age discrimination protections, or because higher termination costs associated with stronger age discrimination protections do more to deter hiring when future product and labor demand is highly uncertain.

JEL-codes: J14 J26 J71 J78 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-dem, nep-lab and nep-ltv
Note: AG LS
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as David Neumark & Patrick Button, 2014. "Did Age Discrimination Protections Help Older Workers Weather the Great Recession?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 566-601, 06.

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Journal Article: Did Age Discrimination Protections Help Older Workers Weather the Great Recession? (2014)
Working Paper: Did Age Discrimination Protections Help Older Workers Weather the Great Recession? (2013)
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