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Testing for Discrimination against Lesbians of Different Marital Status: A Field Experiment

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  • Doris Weichselbaumer

Abstract

type="main" xml:id="irel12079-abs-0001"> In this paper, I conduct a correspondence testing experiment to examine sexual orientation discrimination against lesbians in Germany. I sent applications from four fictional female characters in response to job advertisements in Munich and Berlin: a heterosexual single, a married heterosexual, a single lesbian, and a lesbian who is in a “same-sex registered partnership.” While single lesbians and lesbians in a registered partnership are equally discriminated in comparison to the heterosexual women in the city of Munich, I found no discrimination based on sexual orientation in Berlin. Furthermore, for a subset of the data we can compare the effects of a randomized versus a paired testing approach, which suggests that under certain conditions, due to increased conspicuity, the paired testing approach may lead to biased results.

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  • Doris Weichselbaumer, 2015. "Testing for Discrimination against Lesbians of Different Marital Status: A Field Experiment," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 131-161, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:indres:v:54:y:2015:i:1:p:131-161
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/irel.2014.54.issue-1
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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