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Gender discrimination in hiring across occupations: a nationally-representative vignette study

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  • Kübler, Dorothea
  • Schmid, Julia
  • Stüber, Robert

Abstract

We investigate gender discrimination in a nationally-representative sample of German firms using a factorial survey design. Short CVs of fictitious applicants for apprenticeship positions are presented to human resource managers who are asked to evaluate the applicants. Women are evaluated worse than men on average, controlling for all attributes of the CV. This measure of discrimination is robust to differences in the variance of unobservable productivity characteristics (“Heckman critique”). Discrimination against women varies across industries and occupations. Controlling for all occupation- and firm-related variables that we observe, only the share of women in an occupation correlates with discrimination.

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  • Kübler, Dorothea & Schmid, Julia & Stüber, Robert, 2018. "Gender discrimination in hiring across occupations: a nationally-representative vignette study," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55, pages 215-229.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:213866
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    3. Van Borm, Hannah & Baert, Stijn, 2022. "Diving in the Minds of Recruiters: What Triggers Gender Stereotypes in Hiring?," IZA Discussion Papers 15261, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Sona Badalyan & Darya Korlyakova & Rastislav Rehak, 2023. "Disclosure Discrimination: An Experiment Focusing on Communication in the Hiring Process," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp743, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    5. Protsch, Paula, 2021. "Employers’ recruitment contexts and hiring preferences in the German youth labor market," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 73, pages 1-1.
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    7. Ilse Tobback & Dieter Verhaest & Stijn Baert, 2020. "Student Access to Apprenticeships: Evidence from a Vignette Experiment," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 435-465, July.
    8. Sterkens, Philippe & Baert, Stijn & Rooman, Claudia & Derous, Eva, 2021. "Why Making Promotion After a Burnout Is Like Boiling the Ocean," GLO Discussion Paper Series 871, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Christian Spreafico & Agung Sutrisno, 2023. "Artificial Intelligence Assisted Social Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) for Sustainable Product Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-16, May.
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    11. Caliendo, Marco & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Pfeifer, Harald & Uhlendorff, Arne & Wehner, Caroline, 2024. "Managers’ risk preferences and firm training investments," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    12. Patricia Palffy & Patrick Lehnert & Uschi Backes‐Gellner, 2023. "Social norms and gendered occupational choices of men and women: Time to turn the tide?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 380-410, October.
    13. Mladen Adamovic & Andreas Leibbrandt, 2023. "A large‐scale field experiment on occupational gender segregation and hiring discrimination," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 34-59, January.
    14. Silva Goncalves, Juliana & van Veldhuizen, Roel, 2020. "Subjective Judgment and Gender Bias in Advice: Evidence from the Laboratory," Working Papers 2020:27, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    15. Jan Feld & Edwin Ip & Andreas Leibbrandt & Joseph Vecci, 2022. "Identifying and Overcoming Gender Barriers in Tech: A Field Experiment on Inaccurate Statistical Discrimination," Discussion Papers 2205, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
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    17. Kispál-Vitai, Zsuzsanna & Németh, Julianna, 2021. "Szilánkok az üvegplafonból [Splinters from the glass ceiling]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(3), pages 308-331.
    18. Lennart Hofeditz & Sünje Clausen & Alexander Rieß & Milad Mirbabaie & Stefan Stieglitz, 2022. "Applying XAI to an AI-based system for candidate management to mitigate bias and discrimination in hiring," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(4), pages 2207-2233, December.
    19. Adamus, Magdalena & Mikušková, Eva Ballová, 2020. "Gender-based wage discrimination and the backlash effect in recruitment and dismissal processes Experimental evidence from Slovakia," OSF Preprints 4y6uc, Center for Open Science.
    20. Dalle, Axana & Sterkens, Philippe & Baert, Stijn, 2023. "A Poisoned Gift? The Hireability Signals of an Income-Support Program for the Senior Unemployed," IZA Discussion Papers 16057, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Yue Yu & Chengkui Liu, 2023. "Pre-market discrimination or post-market discrimination: research on inequality of opportunity for labor income in China," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(5), pages 2291-2313, May.
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    23. Ghekiere, Abel & Verhaeghe, Pieter-Paul, 2022. "How does ethnic discrimination on the housing market differ across neighborhoods and real estate agencies?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender discrimination; hiring decisions; vignette study;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C99 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Other
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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