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The Age Twist in Employers’ Gender Requests: Evidence from Four Job Boards

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  • Miguel Delgado Helleseter
  • Peter Kuhn
  • Kailing Shen

Abstract

When permitted by law, employers sometimes state the preferred age and gender of their employees in job ads. We study the interaction of advertised requests for age and gender on one Mexican and three Chinese job boards, showing that firms’ explicit gender requests shift dramatically away from women and towards men when firms are seeking older (as opposed to younger) workers. This ‘age twist’ in advertised gender preferences occurs in all four of our datasets and survives controls for occupation, firm, and job title fixed effects. Together, observed characteristics of job ads (including the job title) can account for 65 percent of the twist; within this ‘explained’ component, just three factors: employers’ requests for older men in managerial positions, and for young women in customer contact and helping positions, account for more than half. The latter requests are frequently accompanied by explicit requests for physically attractive candidates. Based on its timing, the remaining portion of the twist, which occurs within job titles, appears to be connected to a differential effect of parenthood on firms’ relative requests for men versus women.

Suggested Citation

  • Miguel Delgado Helleseter & Peter Kuhn & Kailing Shen, 2016. "The Age Twist in Employers’ Gender Requests: Evidence from Four Job Boards," NBER Working Papers 22187, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22187
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    Cited by:

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    2. Emily A. Beam & Joshua Hyman & Caroline Theoharides, 2020. "The Relative Returns to Education, Experience, and Attractiveness for Young Workers," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(2), pages 391-428.
    3. Lalive, Rafael & Card, David & Colella, Fabrizio, 2021. "Gender Preferences in Job Vacancies and Workplace Gender Diversity," CEPR Discussion Papers 16619, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. 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).
    5. Osman, Adam & Speer, Jamin D. & Weaver, Andrew, 2023. "Discrimination against Women in Hiring," IZA Discussion Papers 16598, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Grasso, Giuseppe & Tatsiramos, Konstantinos, 2023. "The Impact of Restricting Fixed-Term Contracts on Labor and Skill Demand," IZA Discussion Papers 16496, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Carlsson, Magnus & Eriksson, Stefan, 2019. "Age discrimination in hiring decisions: Evidence from a field experiment in the labor market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 173-183.
    8. 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.
    9. Benny, Liza & Bhalotra, Sonia & Fernández, Manuel, 2021. "Occupation flexibility and the graduate gender wage gap in the UK," ISER Working Paper Series 2021-05, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    10. Mirka Zvedelikova, 2022. "Preference for Young Workers in Mid-career Recruiting Using Online Ads for Sales Jobs: Evidence from Japan," ISER Discussion Paper 1193, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    11. R. Jason Faberman & Marianna Kudlyak, 2016. "What Does Online Job Search Tell Us about the Labor Market?," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue 1, pages 1-15.
    12. Zhou, Jinyan & Du, Ping & Zhao, Wen & Feng, Siche, 2022. "Skill requirements and remunerations in the private teacher labor market: Estimations with online advertisements in China," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    13. Alfredo Salomão Filho & Tanja Tillmanns & Trudy Corrigan, 2023. "Ageing Organizations: Reviewing the Literature and Making a Few Recommendations for Human Resource Management," Merits, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-14, October.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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