Gender-neutral hiring of junior scholars

Joanna Tyrowicz, Lucas van der Velde and Magdalena Smyk

No 94, GRAPE Working Papers from GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics

Abstract: We examine the role for external experts in providing unbiased evaluations of candidates in the context of gender. Affirmative action policies can promote the advancement of minority candidates, but the empirical results have been inconclusive on whether they are effective in eliminating bias. Our experimental design was structured to detect bias: we ask senior academics to assess the quality of job applications to junior positions and recommend which candidates should be invited for interviews. We study the role of the strong commitment to ensuring equal opportunity in hiring. Additionally, we vary the gender composition of the applications being evaluated and the quality of candidates. We find no evidence of bias in quality assessments, nor in recommendation to invite candidates for an interview, suggesting alignment between external experts and institutional objectives of unbiased hiring.

Keywords: affirmative action; gender discrimination; academia; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 J16 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fme:wpaper:94

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