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

Anna Hochleitner, Fabio Tufano, Giovanni Facchini, Valeria Rueda and Markus Eberhardt

No 20139, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We study the gendered impact of recommendations at different stages of the hiring process, focusing on reference letters. First, we document that women receive fewer 'ability' and more 'grindstone' letters in the academic job market. 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 outcomes. Gender views and strategic behavior based on erroneous beliefs explain referees’ choices. Importantly, we show that recruiters' failure to recognize the gendered nature of reference letters undermines efforts to improve diversity in hiring.

Keywords: Gender; Diversity; Recruitment; Experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 D9 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-04
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