Labour market discrimination against former juvenile delinquents: evidence from a field experiment

Stijn Baert and Elsy Verhofstadt

Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium from Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Abstract: In view of policy action to integrate ex-offenders into society, it is important to identify the underlying mechanisms of the negative relationship between criminal record on the one hand and later employment and earnings on the other hand. Therefore we identify hiring discrimination against former juvenile delinquents in a direct way. To this end we conduct a field experiment in the Belgian labour market. We find that labour market discrimination is indeed a major barrier in the transition to work for former juvenile delinquents. Labour market entrants disclosing a history of juvenile delinquency get about 22 percent less callback compared to their counterparts without a criminal record. This discrimination is more outspoken among the low-educated.

Keywords: juvenile delinquency; hiring discrimination; field experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 J2 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2013-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-lab and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Labour market discrimination against former juvenile delinquents: evidence from a field experiment (2015)
Working Paper: Labour Market Discrimination against Former Juvenile Delinquents: Evidence from a Field Experiment (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rug:rugwps:13/852

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