Blind dates: quasi-experimental evidence on discrimination

Per-Anders Edin and Jonas Lagerström ()
Additional contact information
Jonas Lagerström: IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation, Postal: Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden

No 2006:4, Working Paper Series from IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy

Abstract: This paper provides evidence on discrimination in the hiring process. We use data generated from a “policy experiment” conducted at the Swedish public employment offices. Individuals registered at these offices can post their qualifications in a database available to employers over the Internet. Potential employers are free to search this database for job candidates and contacts between employers and candidates are recorded. We use two complementary identification strategies. First, since our data contain all information available to employers, we argue that selection on observables is viable. Second, we utilize the fact that individuals can choose not to reveal their name and gender to potential employers. Our main finding is that women have a 15 percent lower chance than men of getting contacted by employers and that this differential is fully explained by discrimination. Our results concerning ethnic discrimination are less conclusive, probably due to measurement errors.

Keywords: Blind dates; discrimination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2006-05-17
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.ifau.se/upload/pdf/se/2006/wp06-04.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www.ifau.se/upload/pdf/se/2006/wp06-04.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.ifau.se/upload/pdf/se/2006/wp06-04.pdf)

Related works:
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:hhs:ifauwp:2006_004

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series from IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy IFAU, P O Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ali Ghooloo ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).