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Did Age Discrimination Protections Help Older Workers Weather the Great Recession?

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Abstract

We examine whether stronger age discrimination laws at the state level moderated the impact of the Great Recession on older workers. We use a difference‐in‐difference‐in‐differences strategy to compare older and younger workers, in states with stronger and weaker laws, before, during, and after the Great Recession. We find very little evidence that stronger age discrimination protections helped older workers weather the Great Recession, relative to younger workers. The evidence sometimes points in the opposite direction, with stronger state age discrimination protections associated with more adverse effects of the Great Recession on older workers. We suggest that during an experience such as the Great Recession, severe labor market disruptions make it difficult to discern discrimination, weakening the effects of stronger state age discrimination protections. Alternatively, higher termination costs associated with stronger age discrimination protections may do more to deter hiring when future product and labor demand is highly uncertain.

Suggested Citation

  • David Neumark & Patrick Button, 2014. "Did Age Discrimination Protections Help Older Workers Weather the Great Recession?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 566-601, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:33:y:2014:i:3:p:566-601
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/pam.21762
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    Cited by:

    1. David Neumark, 2018. "Experimental Research on Labor Market Discrimination," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(3), pages 799-866, September.
    2. Valentina Ioana Cheregi, 2025. "Is labor matching effectiveness dependent on education level, age or gender?," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 25(1), pages 1-20.
    3. 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).
    4. Truc Thi Mai Bui & Patrick Button & Elyce G. Picciotti, 2020. "Early Evidence on the Impact of COVID-19 and the Recession on Older Workers," NBER Working Papers 27448, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Patrick Button & Philip Armour & Simon Hollands, 2023. "Estimating the Effects of the ADA Amendments Act on the Hiring and Termination of Individuals with Disabilities, Using New Disability Categorizations," Upjohn Working Papers 22-377, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    6. Sarah Le Duigou & Pierre-Jean Messe, 2017. "Pension reforms, older workers' employment and the role of job separation and finding rates in France," TEPP Working Paper 2017-10, TEPP.
    7. Justyna Stypinska & Konrad Turek, 2017. "Hard and soft age discrimination: the dual nature of workplace discrimination," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 49-61, March.
    8. Trevisan, Elisabetta & Zantomio, Francesca, 2016. "The impact of acute health shocks on the labour supply of older workers: Evidence from sixteen European countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 171-185.
    9. Kadija Charni, 2016. "The French Pension Reforms and their Impact on Unemployed Older Workers," Working Papers halshs-01264447, HAL.
    10. David Neumark & Maysen Yen, 2020. "Relative Sizes of Age Cohorts and Labor Force Participation of Older Workers," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(1), pages 1-31, February.
    11. Mehmet Güney Celbiş & Pui‐hang Wong & Karima Kourtit & Peter Nijkamp, 2023. "Impacts of the COVID‐19 outbreak on older‐age cohorts in European Labor Markets: A machine learning exploration of vulnerable groups," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 559-584, April.
    12. Michael McGann & Rachel Ong & Dina Bowman & Alan Duncan & Helen Kimberley & Simon Biggs, 2016. "Gendered Ageism in Australia: Changing Perceptions of Age Discrimination among Older Men and Women," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 35(4), pages 375-388, December.
    13. Patrick Button & David Neumark, 2014. "Age discrimination and the Great Recession," FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    14. Joanne Song McLaughlin, 2020. "Falling Between the Cracks: Discrimination Laws and Older Women," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 34(2), pages 215-238, June.
    15. Ian Burn, 2018. "Not All Laws are Created Equal: Legal Differences in State Non-Discrimination Laws and the Impact of LGBT Employment Protections," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 462-497, December.
    16. Button, Patrick & Khan, Mashfiqur R. & Penn, Mary, 2022. "Do stronger employment discrimination protections decrease reliance on Social Security Disability Insurance? Evidence from the U.S. Social Security reforms," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 22(C).
    17. 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.
    18. repec:crm:wpaper:2511 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Elena Derby & Lucas Goodman & Kathleen Mackie & Jacob Mortenson, 2022. "Changes in Retirement Savings During the COVID Pandemic," Papers 2204.12359, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2022.
    20. Jennifer Kunz & Laura Michele Ludwig, 2022. "Curbing Discriminating Human Resource Practices—A Microfounded Perspective," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 74(3), pages 307-344, September.
    21. David Neumark & Joanne Song & Patrick Button, 2015. "Does Protecting Older Workers from Discrimination Make It Harder to Get Hired? Revised with Additional Analysis of SIPP Data and Appendix of Disability Laws," Working Papers wp315, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    22. Melanie Jones & Kim Hoque & Victoria Wass & Nick Bacon, 2021. "Inequality and the Economic Cycle: Disabled Employees’ Experience of Work during the Great Recession in Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(3), pages 788-815, September.
    23. Grace Armijos-Bravo & Segundo Camino-Mogro, 2023. "Covid-19 Lockdown in Ecuador: Are there Gender Differences in Unemployment?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(6), pages 833-853, June.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)

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