Getting grey hairs in the labour market. An alternative experiment on age discrimination

Stijn Baert, Jennifer Norga, Yannick Thuy and Marieke Van Hecke

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2016, vol. 57, issue C, 86-101

Abstract: This study presents a new field experimental approach for measuring age discrimination in hiring. In addition to the classical approach in which candidates’ ages are randomly assigned within pairs of fictitious résumés that are sent to real vacancies, we randomly assign between these pairs the activities undertaken by the older candidates during their additional post-educational years. When applying this design to the case of Belgium, we find that age discrimination depends fundamentally on the older candidates’ career patterns. Older age only robustly affects call-back if the older candidate was employed in an out-of-field job during his or her extra post-educational years.

Keywords: Age discrimination; Design of experiments; Field experiments; Difference in Post-Educational Years Problem; Ageing; Hiring discrimination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 C93 J14 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

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Working Paper: Getting Grey Hairs in the Labour Market: An Alternative Experiment on Age Discrimination (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:57:y:2016:i:c:p:86-101

DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2016.10.002

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