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Experimental Age Discrimination Evidence and the Heckman Critique

Author

Listed:
  • David Neumark
  • Ian Burn
  • Patrick Button

Abstract

We design and implement a large-scale field experiment on age discrimination to address limitations of past research that may bias their results. One limitation is the practice of giving older and younger applicants similar experience in the job to which they are applying, to make them "otherwise comparable." The second limitation is ignoring the likelihood of greater variation in unobserved differences among older workers owing to human capital investment. Based on evidence from over 40,000 job applications, we find robust evidence of age discrimination in hiring against older women, but considerably less evidence of age discrimination against older men.

Suggested Citation

  • David Neumark & Ian Burn & Patrick Button, 2016. "Experimental Age Discrimination Evidence and the Heckman Critique," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 303-308, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:106:y:2016:i:5:p:303-08
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20161008
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Deng, Weiguang & Li, Dayang & Zhou, Dong, 2019. "Beauty and Job Accessibility: New Evidence from a Field Experiment," GLO Discussion Paper Series 369, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    2. Teresa Ghilarducci, 2016. "Innovations in Protecting the Old: Mostly Social Insurance and Some Assets," SCEPA working paper series. 2016-05, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    3. Van Borm, Hannah & Burn, Ian & Baert, Stijn, 2021. "What Does a Job Candidate's Age Signal to Employers?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    4. Daniel E. Rigobon & Thibaut Duprey & Artur Kotlicki & Philip Schnattinger & Soheil Baharian & Thomas R. Hurd, 2022. "Business Closures and (Re)Openings in Real-Time Using Google Places: Proof of Concept," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-10, April.
    5. Melo, Vitor & Rocha, Hugo Vaca Pereira & Sigaud, Liam & Warren, Patrick L. & Gaddis, S. Michael, 2024. "Understanding Discrimination in College Admissions: A Field Experiment," SocArXiv 5ctms, Center for Open Science.
    6. Valfort, Marie-Anne, 2020. "Anti-Muslim discrimination in France: Evidence from a field experiment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    7. Button, Patrick & Walker, Brigham, 2020. "Employment discrimination against Indigenous Peoples in the United States: Evidence from a field experiment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    8. Nick Drydakis & Peter MacDonald & Vangelis Chiotis & Laurence Somers, 2018. "Age discrimination in the UK labour market. Does race moderate ageism? An experimental investigation," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 1-4, January.
    9. Fleck, Robert K. & Hanssen, F. Andrew, 2016. "Persistence and change in age-specific gender gaps: Hollywood actors from the silent era onward," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 36-49.
    10. Henry S. Farber & Chris M. Herbst & Dan Silverman & Till von Wachter, 2018. "Whom Do Employers Want? The Role of Recent Employment and Unemployment Status and Age," Working Papers 619, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    11. Konrad Turek & Kène Henkens, 2020. "How Skill Requirements Affect the Likelihood of Recruitment of Older Workers in Poland: The Indirect Role of Age Stereotypes," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(4), pages 550-570, August.
    12. Antinyan, Armenak & Burn, Ian & Jones, Melanie K., 2024. "Productivity Signals and Disability-Related Hiring Discrimination: Evidence from a Field Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 17290, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Eyting, Markus, 2022. "Why do we discriminate? The role of motivated reasoning," SAFE Working Paper Series 356, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    14. Wei Sun & Teresa Ghilarducci & Michael Papadopoulos & Anthony Webb, 2019. "The Impact of a Social Security Proposal for "Catch-Up" Contributions," SCEPA working paper series. 2019-03, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    15. Weiguang Deng & Dayang Li & Dong Zhou, 2020. "Beauty and job accessibility: new evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 1303-1341, October.
    16. Taryn Eames, 2024. "Taryn versus Taryn (she/her) versus Taryn (they/them): A Field Experiment on Pronoun Disclosure and Hiring Discrimination," Working Papers tecipa-766, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    17. Markus Eyting, 2022. "Why do we Discriminate? The Role of Motivated Reasoning," Working Papers 2208, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    18. 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.
    19. Granberg, Mark & Andersson, Per A. & Ahmed, Ali, 2020. "Hiring Discrimination Against Transgender People: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    20. Baert, Stijn, 2017. "Hiring Discrimination: An Overview of (Almost) All Correspondence Experiments Since 2005," IZA Discussion Papers 10738, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Melo, Vitor & Sigaud, Liam, 2024. "Right-to-Work Laws and Labor Market Discrimination: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Working Papers 12375, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    22. Baert, Stijn & Norga, Jennifer & Thuy, Yannick & Van Hecke, Marieke, 2016. "Getting grey hairs in the labour market. An alternative experiment on age discrimination," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 86-101.
    23. Murchie, Judson & Pang, Jindong & Schwegman, David J., 2021. "Can information help Lakisha and Jamal find housing? Evidence from a low-cost online experiment of landlords," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • 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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