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What Happens When Employers Can No Longer Discriminate in Job Ads?

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Kuhn
  • Kailing Shen

Abstract

When employers' explicit gender requests were unexpectedly removed from a Chinese job board overnight, pools of successful applicants became more integrated: women's (men's) share of callbacks to jobs that had requested men (women) rose by 61 (146) percent. The removal "worked" in this sense because it generated a large increase in gender-mismatched applications, and because those applications were treated surprisingly well by employers, suggesting that employers' gender requests often represented relatively weak preferences or outdated stereotypes. The job titles that were integrated by the ban, however, were not the most gendered ones, and were disproportionately lower-wage jobs.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Kuhn & Kailing Shen, 2023. "What Happens When Employers Can No Longer Discriminate in Job Ads?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(4), pages 1013-1048, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:113:y:2023:i:4:p:1013-48
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20211127
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jennifer Hunt & Carolyn Moehling, 2024. "Do Female–Owned Employment Agencies Mitigate Discrimination and Expand Opportunity for Women?," NBER Working Papers 32383, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Dustan, Andrew & Koutout, Kristine & Leo, Greg, 2022. "Second-order beliefs and gender," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 752-781.
    3. Mocanu, Tatiana, 2024. "Designing Gender Equity: Evidence from Hiring Practices," IZA Discussion Papers 17480, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. David Card & Fabrizio Colella & Rafael Lalive, 2025. "Gender Preferences in Job Vacancies and Workplace Gender Diversity," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 92(4), pages 2437-2471.
    5. Tatiana Mocanu, 2024. "Designing Gender Equity: Evidence from Hiring Practices," CESifo Working Paper Series 11523, CESifo.
    6. Bamieh, Omar & Ziegler, Lennart, 2023. "Gender-age differences in hiring rates and prospective wages—Evidence from job referrals to unemployed workers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    7. Deng, Yue & Feng, Aiya & Hu, Dezhuang, 2025. "Gender earnings gap in Chinese firms: Can it be narrowed by industrial robots?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    8. Li, Qingxiao & Xiao, Di, 2025. "Fertility discrimination in the Chinese labor market: Evidence from a correspondence study and an employer survey," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    9. Larissa Fuchs & Matthias Heinz & Pia Pinger & Max Thon, 2024. "How to Attract Talent? Field-Experimental Evidence on Emphasizing Flexibility and Career Opportunities in Job Advertisements," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 332, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    10. repec:crm:wpaper:2511 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Chaturvedi, Sugat & Mahajan, Kanika & Siddique, Zahra, 2025. "Gendered language in job ads and applicant behavior: Evidence from India," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    12. repec:osf:socarx:u6z5e_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Shen, Kailing, 2021. "Gender Discrimination," IZA Discussion Papers 14897, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions
    • P31 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Socialist Enterprises and Their Transitions

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