EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Discrimination in Hiring Based on Potential and Realized Fertility: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment

Sascha Becker, Ana Fernandes and Doris Weichselbaumer

No 13685, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Due to conventional gender norms, women are more likely to be in charge of childcare than men. From an employer's perspective, in their fertile age they are also at “risk†of pregnancy. Both factors potentially affect hiring practices of firms. We conduct a large-scale correspondence test in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, sending out approx. 9,000 job applications, varying job candidate’s personal characteristics such as marital status and age of children. We find evidence that, for part-time jobs, married women with older kids, who likely finished their childbearing cycle and have more projectable childcare chores than women with very young kids, are at a significant advantage vis-à-vis other groups of women. At the same time, married, but childless applicants, who have a higher likelihood to become pregnant, are at a disadvantage compared to single, but childless applicants to part-time jobs. Such effects are not present for full-time jobs, presumably, because by applying to these in contrast to part-time jobs, women signal that they have arranged for external childcare.

Keywords: Fertility; Discrimination; Experimental economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 J16 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-hrm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP13685 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: Discrimination in hiring based on potential and realized fertility: Evidence from a large-scale field experiment (2019) Downloads
Working Paper: Discrimination in hiring based on potential and realized fertility: evidence from a large-scale field experiment (2019) Downloads
Working Paper: Discrimination in Hiring Based on Potential and Realized Fertility: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment (2019) Downloads
Working Paper: Discrimination in Hiring Based on Potential and Realized Fertility: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment (2019) Downloads
Working Paper: Discrimination in Hiring Based on Potential and Realized Fertility: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment (2019) Downloads
Working Paper: Discrimination in Hiring Based on Potential and Realized Fertility: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment (2019) Downloads
Working Paper: Discrimination in Hiring Based on Potential and Realized Fertility: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment (2019) Downloads
Working Paper: Discrimination in hiring based on potential and realized fertility: Evidence from a large-scale field experiment (2019) Downloads
Working Paper: Discrimination in Hiring Based on Potential and Realized Fertility: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment (2019) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13685

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP13685

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-24
Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13685