How Tinted Are Your Glasses? Gender Views, Beliefs and Recommendations in Hiring

Anna Hochleitner (), Fabio Tufano (), Giovanni Facchini, Valeria Rueda () and Markus Eberhardt
Additional contact information
Anna Hochleitner: Centre for Applied Research, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Postal: SNF, Centre for Applied Research, Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway, https://www.annahochleitner.com/
Fabio Tufano: Dept. of Economics, Finance and Accounting, University of Leicester, Postal: University of Leicester School of Business, Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting, Brookfield 2.02 Mallard House, 266 London Road , Leicester, LE2 1RQ , United Kingdom, https://le.ac.uk/people/fabio-tufano
Valeria Rueda: School of Economics, University of Nottingham, Postal: University of Nottingham, School of Economics, B70 Sir Clive Granger Building, Uni Park, NG72 RD Nottingham, United Kingdom, https://www.valeriarueda.org/

No 7/2025, Discussion Paper Series in Economics from Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics

Abstract: We study the gendered impact of recommendations at different stages of the hiring process. First, using a large sample of reference letters from the academic job market for economists, we document that women receive fewer ‘ability’ and more ‘grindstone’ letters. Next, we conduct two experiments — with academic economists and a broader, college-educated, population — analyzing both recommendation and recruitment stages. These confirm that recommendations are gendered and impact recruitment. We elicit gender views and beliefs about the effectiveness of different letter types, uncovering that gender attitudes and strategic behavior based on erroneous beliefs explain referees’ choices. Finally, we decompose gender recruitment gaps into two components: one capturing differences in treatment of candidates with identical qualities, the other reflecting recruiters’ failure to account for gendered patterns in recommendations. We show that recruiters’ failure to recognize the gendered nature of reference letters undermines visible efforts to improve diversity in hiring.

Keywords: Gender; Recruitment; Diversity; Experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 D19 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 98 pages
Date: 2025-03-31
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Working Paper: How Tinted Are Your Glasses? Gender Views, Beliefs and Recommendations in Hiring (2025)
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