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Being overweight or obese is associated with lower employment and earnings, possibly arising from employer discrimination. A few studies have used field experiments to show that obese job applicants are, in fact, discriminated against in the hiring process. However, whether overweight job applicants also face employer discrimination is still an open question. To this end, we have designed a correspondence testing experiment in which fictitious applications are sent to real job openings across twelve different occupations in the Spanish labor market. We compare the callback rate for applications with a facial photo of a normal weight person to the one for applications with a photo of the same person manipulated into looking overweight. Applications with a photo of the weight-manipulated male receive significantly fewer callbacks for a job interview compared to normal weight, and this differential treatment is especially pronounced in female-dominated occupations. For women, we find the opposite result. Weight-manipulated female applications receive slightly more callbacks, especially in female-dominated occupations. Our experimental design allows us to disentangle whether employers act on attractiveness or weight when hiring. For men, the weight manipulation effect is explained by an attractiveness premium, while for women we find evidence of an attractiveness penalty, as well as a weight penalty, in explaining the effect.

Most research on intake focusses on the restrictions parents’ capital cause on their abilities to choose. However, the steering effect of schools in the choice-process has been neglected. We chose the Flemish context to investigate ethnic- and class-discrimination in the enrolment to kindergarten (N = 2243). The Flemish education system is known for its exceptional ‘freedom of choice’ allowing parents to enrol their children into their school of preference without restrictions. Simultaneously, the education system is highly decentralized due to the principle of ‘freedom of education’ that grants high levels of autonomy to schools in creating their school policies. Using correspondence testing, the results show that schools act as gatekeepers using subtle discriminatory strategies to keep students with an underprivileged background out.

We carry out seven distinct and independent rounds of correspondence tests to detect discriminatory behaviour in domains that heretofore have not been subjected to much investigation in the literature: purchasing a used car, purchasing an auto insurance policy, applying for a car loan, purchasing complementary health insurance, enrolling in an adult training program, purchasing an existing small business, and renting vacation accommodations. We seek to discern evidence of discriminatory behaviour according to the criteria of age, gender, ethnic origin, and the locality of residence.

A large body of research documents the existence of discrimination against migrants and ethnic minorities in the labour market. This study investigates for Austria, to what degree employment discrimination against ethnic minorities is mitigated, when they abstain from following the Austrian norm of including a photograph to their job application that would make their ethnicity salient or when they hold a local sounding name. In our correspondence test, we found that with matching ethnic names and ethnic photographs, black but not Asian job applicants suffered from discrimination. With a local sounding name, blacks (but not Asians) bettered their employment chances. Although photographs may facilitate ethnic discrimination, we did not find that their omission improved minorities' labour market chances. On the contrary, Asians were penalised for leaving out their photograph. Indeed, if candidates did not attach photos despite the convention to do so, we found statistically significant discrimination not only against black, but also Asian applicants.

Correspondence tests on ethnic discrimination in the labor market usually focus on how often native majority candidates and ethnic minority candidates are invited for job interviews on an aggregated level. Cases in which only minority candidates are invited for an interview have mostly been disregarded as noise and not analyzed further. In this paper, we argue that employers who prefer minority over majority candidates may have good reasons to do so. We propose several theoretical mechanisms that explain why it would be desirable to hire individuals with a non-native background and test these expectations quantitatively with correspondence test data that was collected in Switzerland between October 2017 and December 2018. We find partial support for our expectations: in particular, in urban and thus likely more international firm settings; and among owners doing the recruitment themselves in the context of small enterprises, where close supervision is possible, we identified employers who are more willing to “take the risk” and to invite only minority applicants for a job interview. We argue that employer behavior is likely to be complex and that research should analyze instances of minority preferences more systematically.

Cette étude présente les résultats de tests de discrimination dans l’accès à l’emploi, correspondants à 17163 demandes émanant de candidats fictifs envoyées entre octobre 2018 et janvier 2019 à 103 très grandes entreprises françaises, selon deux critères, l’origine et le lieu de résidence. Nous utilisons plusieurs méthodes de tests, en combinant des candidatures et des demandes d’information, à la fois en réponse à des offres d’emploi publiées ou de façon spontanée. Nous produisons ainsi des indices de discrimination représentatifs des recrutements au niveau d’une entreprise donnée et comparables d’une entreprise à une autre. Pour l’ensemble des entreprises testées, l’étude met en évidence une discrimination significative et robuste selon le critère de l’origine, à l’encontre du candidat français présumé maghrébin, dans tous les territoires testés. Les résultats ne dépendent pas du type de tests utilisés (ils sont qualitativement les mêmes avec des candidatures spontanées ou avec des réponses à des offres). Nous trouvons également une discrimination plus faiblement significative selon le lieu de résidence, pour une partie des tests. La discrimination à l'égard du demandeur d’origine nord-africaine présumée est plus forte dans les entreprises les plus grandes, dont le chiffre d'affaires est supérieur à la médiane, et se concentre dans quelques secteurs d’activité. En revanche, elle varie peu d'une ville à l'autre. Bien que non significative au niveau agrégé, on constate une discrimination selon le lieu de résidence dans l’industrie et à Paris.

In France, numerous empirical studies highlight the existence and extent of discrimination against some demographic groups because of one or more criteria in a particular market. Most of this work has focused on discrimination in hiring and access to housing, on the basis of gender, origin and place of residence. In response to these difficulties, many public policy measures have been put in place. However, studies to evaluate them on a rigorous basis remain very rare or non-existent.In this doctoral thesis, we are interested in evaluating the effectiveness of three actions to combat discrimination based on gender, origin and place of residence in the fields of employment and housing.In access to private employment (Chapter 1), we examine whether individual entrepreneurship, encouraged by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, in his speech on 14 November 2017 on the theme of “Politique de la Ville” (City Policy) in Roubaix, is an effective means of avoiding discrimination on the grounds of gender, origin and reputation of the place of residence on the labour market. We are interested in entrepreneurship through business takeovers. In access to public employment (Chapter 2), we are interested in evaluating the new actions for equality and diversity in recruitment implemented within the French Ministry of National Education since 2014: by modifying the rules for the constitution of juries, raising juries' awareness of discrimination, modifying recruitment methods, as well as professionalizing the competition tests, with a reduction in the number of tests, and changing their content. This last aspect is the main point of the reform of the open competitions of the different categories of the French Ministry of National Education. We are examining the impact of this reform of the professionalisation of competitions on the chances of success in the competition for candidates who are potentially discriminated against on the grounds of their sex or place of residence, as well as on the evaluation bias on the part of members of the selection boards.In access to housing (Chapter 3), we assess the effect of an action to reduce discrimination on the basis of origin by means of a nominative letter reminding the legal framework sent by “le Défenseur des Droits” (the Defender of Rights) to real estate agencies with a high risk of discrimination, En France, de nombreux travaux empiriques mettent en évidence l’existence et l’ampleur de discriminations à l’encontre de certains groupes démographiques en raison d’un ou de plusieurs critères sur un marché particulier. La plupart de ces travaux se sont intéressés à la discrimination à l’embauche et dans l’accès au logement, en raison du sexe, de l’origine et du lieu de résidence. Face à ces difficultés, de nombreux dispositifs de politiques publiques de remédiation ont été mis en place. Toutefois, les études ayant pour objet leur évaluation sur une base rigoureuse demeurent très rares ou inexistantes. Dans cette thèse de doctorat, nous nous intéressons à l’évaluation de l’efficacité de trois actions de lutte contre les discriminations liées au sexe, à l’origine et au lieu de résidence dans les domaines de l’emploi et du logement. Dans l’accès à l’emploi privé (Chapitre 1), nous examinons si l’entreprenariat individuel, encouragé par le président de la République, Emmanuel Macron, lors de son discours du 14 novembre 2017 sur le thème de la « Politique de la Ville » à Roubaix, constitue un moyen efficace pour contourner les discriminations en raison du sexe, de l’origine et de la réputation du lieu de résidence sur le marché du travail. Nous nous intéressons à l’entreprenariat par la reprise d’entreprise. Dans l’accès à l’emploi public (Chapitre 2), nous nous intéressons à l’évaluation des nouvelles actions pour l’égalité et la diversité dans les recrutements mises en place au sein du Ministère de l’Education Nationale depuis 2014 : par la modification des règles de constitution des jurys, la sensibilisation des jurys à la discrimination, la modification des modalités de recrutement, ainsi que la professionnalisation des épreuves des concours, avec une réduction du nombre d’épreuves, et un changement de leur contenu. Ce dernier aspect constitue le principal point de la réforme du système des concours externes des différentes catégories du Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale. Nous examinons l’impact de cette réforme de professionnalisation des concours sur les chances de réussite au concours pour les candidats potentiellement discriminés en raison de leur sexe ou de leur lieu de résidence, ainsi que sur les biais d’évaluation de la part des membres des jurys. Dans l’accès au logement (Chapitre 3), nous évaluons l’effet d’une action visant à réduire la discrimination selon l’origine à l’aide d’un courrier nominatif de rappel du cadre légal adressé par le Défenseur des Droits à des agences immobilières à risque discriminatoire élevé

This paper investigates the importance of ethnic homophily in the hiring discrimination process, and provides a novel test for statistical discrimination. Our evidence comes from a correspondence test performed in France, in which we use three different kinds of ethnic identification: French sounding names, North African sounding names, and "foreign" sounding names with no clear ethnic association. Within both male and female groups, we show that all non-French applicants are equally discriminated against when compared to French applicants. This indicates that racial discrimination in employment is directed against members of non-majority ethnic groups, and highlights the importance of favoritism for in-group members. Moreover we find direct evidence of homophily: recruiters with European names are more likely to call back French named applicants and female recruiters are more likely to call back women. The paper also directly tests for statistical discrimination by adding a signal related to language skill ability in all resumes sent to half the job offers. Although the signal inclusion significantly impacts the discrimination experienced by non-French females, it is much weaker for male minorities.

International audience; This study measures different types of discrimination on three markets that have rarely been studied in France, despite the fact that access to these markets can determine the professional and social integration of individuals, in particular young people. These markets are automobile insurance, health insurance, and consumer credit. Within these markets, we assess age discrimination, sex discrimination, ethnic discrimination, and discrimination related to place of residence, using correspondence testing. We used six profiles of fictitious individuals who submitted similar requests for a quotation from credit providers, insurance providers, and health insurance providers. First of all, in March 2016, we tested 38 non-life and composite insurance companies by sending them an online request for a quotation for automobile insurance. Then, between April and May 2016, we tested 52 companies by sending them an online request for a quotation for health insurance. Finally, in June 2016, we tested 20 financial institutions by sending six requests for a quotation for consumer credit in order to buy a second-hand car. These three testing campaigns highlight the existence of age discrimination, sex discrimination, ethnic discrimination, and discrimination related to place of residence, both in the access to services and in the pricing applied by providers.; Cette recherche s’intéresse aux discriminations sur trois marchés qui ont encore été peu étudiés en France alors même que l’accès à ces marchés peut conditionner l’insertion professionnelle et sociale des personnes, en particulier des jeunes. Il s’agit de l’assurance automobile, des complémentaires-santé et du crédit à la consommation. Nous évaluons la discrimination sur ces marchés à raison de l’âge, du sexe, de l’origine et de la réputation du lieu de résidence, à l’aide d’opérations de testing. Nous avons utilisé six profils d’individus fictifs qui ont formulé des demandes de devis similaires auprès d’offreurs de crédits, d’assurances et de complémentaires santé.En mars 2016, nous avons tout d’abord testé 38 établissements d’assurance en leur adressant une demande de devis pour une assurance automobile à partir d’une simulation effectuée sur leur site Internet. Puis, entre avril et mai 2016, nous avons testé les 52 établissements qui permettaient d’adresser une demande de devis pour une complémentaire santé à partir d’une simulation effectuée sur leur site Internet. Enfin, en juin 2016, nous avons testé 20 établissements financiers en adressant six demandes de devis pour un crédit à la consommation en vue d’acheter une voiture d’occasion. Ces trois campagnes de testing mettent en évidence l’existence de discrimination liée à l’âge, au sexe, au lieu de résidence et à l’origine, à la fois dans l’accès aux services et dans la tarification appliquée par les offreurs.

Published online: 25 Jul 2018 Correspondence studies of labour market discrimination find that minorities, which in general suffer disadvantage, are sometimes preferred in a choice against members of the majority. This outcome has been observed in several studies of ethnic or nationality-based discrimination, but also in studies focusing on other characteristics, such as unemployment and being overweight. However, it is generally not explained and dismissed as noise. In this paper we challenge this understanding, and, using meta-analytical techniques, we show that instances of minority preference are not randomly distributed. We also show that they are more frequent for groups which overall suffer stronger discrimination and for high skilled professionals. We reason that this result may be explained with the fact that groups that suffer discrimination have fewer alternatives in the labour market and this makes them more attractive for jobs of sub-standard quality and for jobs in which turnover costs are high (e.g. high skilled professionals). We conclude by arguing that since tests in which the minority candidate is preferred are not randomly distributed, future research should study the determinants of minority preference in a more systematic manner.

This thesis analyzes the determinants of youth unemployment and the inequalities regarding entry on the labour market in Algeria, especially in terms of gender.The first research hypothesis holds some individual characteristics as factors predisposing at risk of unemployment. A typology is issued from a sample of unemployed from three regions (Bejaia, Tizi Ouzou and Tlemcen), thanks to a Multiple Correspondence Analysis associated with an Ascending Hierarchical Classification; it reveals that youth unemployment is more urban mainly among women and the higher education graduates. Using a Logit model, we then show that age, human capital and gender affect significantly the likelihood of the active people to be unemployed rather than access employment in the region of Tizi-Ouzou.The second hypothesis is based on the “voluntary” nature of inactivity of women. The results of logistic regression performed on the sample of women in the Tizi-Ouzou region indicate that age, human capital and marital status are the most significant variables in driving women to inactivity.The third hypothesis suggests that discrimination against women is likely to be the cause of gender inequalities on the Algerian labour market. We explore the issue of hiring discrimination through the first correspondence testingconducted in Algeria (Oran). Against conventional wisdom, the analysis of gross and conditional discrimination reveals a marked preference towards female candidates applying for various job positions in the accounting profession.; Cette thèse analyse les déterminants du chômage des jeunes ainsi que les inégalités d’insertion sur le marché du travail en Algérie, en particulier sous l’angle du genre.La première hypothèse de recherche retient certaines des caractéristiques individuelles comme facteurs prédisposant les actifs au risque de chômage. La typologie dégagée de l’échantillon de chômeurs (Bejaia, Tizi-Ouzou et Tlemcen) à travers l’Analyse des Correspondances Multiples associée à une Classification Ascendante Hiérarchique, révèle un chômage juvénile plutôt urbain se recrutant principalement parmi les femmes et les diplômés de l’enseignement supérieur. Nous montrons ensuite, au moyen d’un modèle Logit, que l’âge, le capital humain ainsi que le genre influent significativement sur la probabilité des actifs d’être au chômage plutôt qu’en emploi dans la wilaya de Tizi-Ouzou.La deuxième hypothèse posée se fonde sur l’aspect « volontaire » de l’inactivité des femmes. Les résultats de la régression logistique réalisée sur l’échantillon des femmes de la région de Tizi-Ouzou indiquent que l’âge, le capital humain ainsi que la situation matrimoniale constituent les variables les plus déterminantes dans l’orientation des femmes vers l’inactivité.La troisième hypothèse suggère que la discrimination à l’égard des femmes est susceptible d’être à l’origine des inégalités de genre constatées sur le marché du travail algérien. Nous explorons la question de la discrimination à l’embauche à travers le tout premier testing réalisé en Algérie (Oran). Contrairement à ce qui est souvent admis, la discrimination brute et conditionnelle révèlent un net favoritisme à l’égard des candidatures féminines pour les différents postes considérés de la profession comptable.

This thesis analyzes the determinants of youth unemployment and the inequalities regarding entry on the labour market in Algeria, especially in terms of gender.The first research hypothesis holds some individual characteristics as factors predisposing at risk of unemployment. A typology is issued from a sample of unemployed from three regions (Bejaia, Tizi Ouzou and Tlemcen), thanks to a Multiple Correspondence Analysis associated with an Ascending Hierarchical Classification; it reveals that youth unemployment is more urban mainly among women and the higher education graduates. Using a Logit model, we then show that age, human capital and gender affect significantly the likelihood of the active people to be unemployed rather than access employment in the region of Tizi-Ouzou.The second hypothesis is based on the “voluntary” nature of inactivity of women. The results of logistic regression performed on the sample of women in the Tizi-Ouzou region indicate that age, human capital and marital status are the most significant variables in driving women to inactivity.The third hypothesis suggests that discrimination against women is likely to be the cause of gender inequalities on the Algerian labour market. We explore the issue of hiring discrimination through the first correspondence testingconducted in Algeria (Oran). Against conventional wisdom, the analysis of gross and conditional discrimination reveals a marked preference towards female candidates applying for various job positions in the accounting profession., Cette thèse analyse les déterminants du chômage des jeunes ainsi que les inégalités d’insertion sur le marché du travail en Algérie, en particulier sous l’angle du genre.La première hypothèse de recherche retient certaines des caractéristiques individuelles comme facteurs prédisposant les actifs au risque de chômage. La typologie dégagée de l’échantillon de chômeurs (Bejaia, Tizi-Ouzou et Tlemcen) à travers l’Analyse des Correspondances Multiples associée à une Classification Ascendante Hiérarchique, révèle un chômage juvénile plutôt urbain se recrutant principalement parmi les femmes et les diplômés de l’enseignement supérieur. Nous montrons ensuite, au moyen d’un modèle Logit, que l’âge, le capital humain ainsi que le genre influent significativement sur la probabilité des actifs d’être au chômage plutôt qu’en emploi dans la wilaya de Tizi-Ouzou.La deuxième hypothèse posée se fonde sur l’aspect « volontaire » de l’inactivité des femmes. Les résultats de la régression logistique réalisée sur l’échantillon des femmes de la région de Tizi-Ouzou indiquent que l’âge, le capital humain ainsi que la situation matrimoniale constituent les variables les plus déterminantes dans l’orientation des femmes vers l’inactivité.La troisième hypothèse suggère que la discrimination à l’égard des femmes est susceptible d’être à l’origine des inégalités de genre constatées sur le marché du travail algérien. Nous explorons la question de la discrimination à l’embauche à travers le tout premier testing réalisé en Algérie (Oran). Contrairement à ce qui est souvent admis, la discrimination brute et conditionnelle révèlent un net favoritisme à l’égard des candidatures féminines pour les différents postes considérés de la profession comptable.

Anti-discrimination policies play an important role in public discussions. However, identifying discriminatory practices in the labor market is not an easy task. Correspondence testing provides a credible way to reveal discrimination in hiring and provide hard facts for policies, and it has provided evidence of discrimination in hiring across almost all continents except Africa. The method involves sending matched pairs of identical job applications to employers posting jobs—the only difference being a characteristic that signals membership to a group.

Questions of research ethics always arise when planning a correspondence test to study discrimination in the market place. However, the issue is addressed relatively little in published correspondence tests with authors usually referring to the two seminal articles written in this field (i.e. Banton (1997) and Riach and Rich (2004)). Since then correspondence testing has become more widespread and the technique is increasingly relying on the internet to find and send applications. It is therefore necessary to revisit the question of ethics in correspondence testing. This paper addresses the ethical issues that researchers are facing in correspondence tests that study discrimination in hiring decisions in the labour market in particular. It provides a short overview on the development of research ethic guidelines. The main part of the paper focuses on the ethical issues that arise in correspondence testing, looking at questions of covert research, potential problems (regarding voluntary participation, informed consent, deception, entrapment of employers, employer’s rights), possible solutions and technical challenges. Looking at specific country examples, decisions by ethical commissions and national legal frameworks are considered. These show that testing has to be renegotiated depending on the national context, and, in the case of Germany, legal implications of correspondence testing are discussed. The paper concludes that correspondence testing, if planned carefully and executed responsibly, does not violate research ethics in social sciences.

In this paper, I experimentally examine the employment opportunities of Austrians with and without migration background. Applications of candidates with a Serbian, Turkish, Chinese, Nigerian and no migration background are sent in response to job openings. Previous experiments have indicated ethnicity via the name of an applicant, however employers may not always correctly perceive this signal. Since photographs are a requirement for applications in the German speaking context, this study uses a novel approach to signal ethnic background and employs carefully matched photos as distinct visual cues. While results document employment discrimination for all groups with migration background, it is most pronounced for applicants with an African, i.e. Nigerian, background. To explain why and when discrimination occurs, a battery of firm and job specific characteristics are examined (e.g. whether team or customer contact is part of the job description). However, these help little to explain the actual level of discrimination. Discrimination in Austria therefore seems to be a general phenomenon driven by employers' preferences that is barely affected by situational variables.

We performed a correspondence testing in order to assess the potential discrimination at job access level against young people of ethnic origin from the underprivileged suburbs of the Paris area (Ilede-France). We measure simultaneously the effects of place of residence (privileged or underprivileged city), of nationality (French or Moroccan), and of sound of surname and of forename (French or Arab), on the chances of obtaining a job interview when answering a job ad. We base our assessment on a controlled experiment conducted on the profession of waiter. We constructed 16 jobseeker profiles and sent 938 resumes in reply to 118 job vacancies advertised at the end of 2006. We obtain two results. First, there is evidence of a significant effect against the candidates with an Arab origin; second, there is evidence of residential discrimination against the candidates that are either the most qualified or of French origin. Overall, discrimination would tend to level down the employment opportunities of the candidates in underprivileged suburbs by putting at a disadvantage the candidates that are usually the most favored.

This paper investigates the importance of ethnic homophily in the hiring discrimination process, and provides a novel test for statistical discrimination. Our evidence comes from a correspondence test performed in France, in which we use three different kinds of ethnic identification: French sounding names, North African sounding names, and "foreign" sounding names with no clear ethnic association. Within both male and female groups, we show that all non-French applicants are equally discriminated against when compared to French applicants. This indicates that racial discrimination in employment is directed against members of non-majority ethnic groups, and highlights the importance of favoritism for in-group members. Moreover we find direct evidence of homophily: recruiters with European names are more likely to call back French named applicants and female recruiters are more likely to call back women. The paper also directly tests for statistical discrimination by adding a signal related to language skill ability in all resumes sent to half the job offers. Although the signal inclusion significantly impacts the discrimination experienced by non-French females, it is much weaker for male minorities., Cet article s'intéresse au rôle de l'homophilie ethnique dans la discrimination à l'embauche, et propose une nouvelle façon de tester l'existence d'une discrimination statistique. Notre analyse porte sur des tests de correspondance effectués en France dans lesquels nous distinguons trois types d'identification ethnique : des noms à consonance Française, à consonance maghrébine, et à consonance étrangère sans attache claire à une origine particulière. Nos résultats montrent que la discrimination à l'embauche opère indifféremment envers tous les noms à consonance étrangère, tant chez les hommes que chez les femmes. Ce résultat indique que la discrimination ethnique s'effectue à l'encontre de tous ceux qui n'appartiennent pas à la majorité ethnique, et souligne l'importance du favoritisme au sein de groupes ethniques. Nous montrons qui plus est l'existence de l'homophilie : les recruteurs au nom européen ont tendance à rappeler davantage les noms à consonance française, et les femmes ont tendance à rappeler davantage des femmes. Cet article teste également l'existence d'une discrimination statistique en ajoutant aux CV un signal portant sur les compétences linguistiques pour la moitié des offres d'emploi. Si l'inclusion du signal réduit fortement la discrimination envers les noms féminins à consonance étrangère, cet effet est bien plus faible pour les noms masculins à consonance étrangère.

This study uses the findings of a test carried out by correspondence in order to assess separately the potential hiring effects of North African origin and Muslim or Catholic religious affiliation in the French real estate sector. We constructed six jobseeker profiles, each representing a particular situation with respect to national origin and religious closeness, and we sent 1800 resumés in reply to 300 job vacancies advertised from mid April to mid September 2011 in Paris and its suburbs. We find evidences of significant hiring discrimination against applicants of North African origin, regardless of their religious closenesses and against applicants signaling closeness to the Muslim religion, regardless of their national origin. JEL codes C81, C93, J15, J71

The author determined hiring discrimination using two perspectives. First, hiring managers were interviewed to determine implicit discrimination. Second, correspondence testing was conducted to determine if employers discriminate against applicants with foreign names during hiring process. A cross country analysis was done between Sweden and Canada. Almost 6 million foreign born people live in Canada while almost 1 million foreign born people live in Sweden. The results revealed that hiring managers in both countries are well aware of negative impact of hiring discrimination on their organisations. However, correspondence testing revealed contrasting results. 1009 jobs were applied in Sweden while 1326 jobs were applied in Canada. The aggregate results for Sweden show that applicants’ with foreign names receive a call back rate of 66.3% while applicants with Swedish names received a call back rate of 77.2%. The aggregate results for Canada show that applicants with foreign names received a call back rate of 73.5% while applicants with English names received a call back rate of 74.6%. The results indicate that hiring discrimination against applicants with foreign names is more pronounced in Sweden compared to Canada. Student yes

The extent of racial discrimination in the labor market is now clearly identified, but its nature largely remains an open question. This paper reports results from an experiment in which fabricated resumes are sent to help-wanted advertisements in Chicago newpapers. We use three groups of identical resumes : one with Anglo-Saxon names, one with African-American names and one with fictitious foreign names whose ethnic origin is unidentifiable to most Americans. We find that resumes with Anglo-Saxon names generate nearly one half more call-backs than identical resumes with African-American or Foreign names. Resumes with non-Anglo-Saxon names, whether African-American or Foreign, show no statistically significant difference in the number of callbacks they elicit. We also find that discrimination is significantly higher in the Chicago suburbs - where ethnic homogenity is high - as opposed to the city proper. We take this as evidence that discriminatory behavior is part of a larger pattern of unequal treatment of any member of non-majority groups - ethnic homophily., Si l'ampleur de la discrimination raciale sur le marché du travail est désormais clairement identifiée, la question de sa nature reste encore largement ouverte. Cet article présente les résultats d'une expérience au cours de laquelle des CV sont envoyés en réponse à des offres d'emploi parues dans les journaux de Chicago. Nous utilisons trois groupes de CV identiques : les premiers portent un nom à consonance anglo-saxonne, les deuxièmes un nom à consonance afro-américaines et les troisièmes un nom fictif à consonance étrangère mais dont l'origine ethnique n'est pas clairement identifiée par la population Américaine. Nos résultats montrent que le taux de réponses positives obtenu par les candidatures portant un nom à consonance anglo-saxonne représente près d'une fois et demie celui qu'obtiennent des candidatures identiques, mais dont les noms sont à consonances afro-américaine ou étrangère. Le succès des candidatures portant des noms à consonance non anglo-saxonne, afro-américaines ou étrangères, est statistiquement identique. Nous constatons en outre que la discrimination est significativement plus élevée dans la banlieue de Chicago - où homogénéité ethnique est élevée - par opposition au centre ville. Ces résultats suggèrent que les comportements de discrimination sont reliés plus largement à une inégalité de traitement à l'égard de tout individu qui n'appartient pas au groupe majoritaire.

This study is the first to present evidence of the return to leisure sports in the job hiring process by sending fictitious applications to real job openings in the Swedish labor market. In the field experiment job applicants were randomly given different information about their type and level of leisure sport being engaged in. Applications which signal sport skills have a significantly higher callback rate of about two percentage points for men, and this effect is about twice as large in physically demanding occupations. This indicates a health-productivity interpretation of the results. However, the result is mainly driven by the return to sports as soccer and golf, and not at all by more fitness related sports as running and swimming, which is indicative of alternative explanations for the labor market sports premium. One possible explanation emerges when analyzing register data on adult earnings and physical fitness when enlisting at age 18. The fitness premium, net of unobservable family variables, is in the order of 4-5 percent, but diminishes to 1 percent when controlling for non-cognitive skills. Hence, these results indicate that being engaged in leisure sports signals having important social skills.

Today there is a variation within the EU to what extent nations allow for situation test results to constitute mass of evidence in court in order to prevent ethnic discrimination. In the UK The Equality and Human Rights Commission has the right to conduct discrimination tests and to even prosecute firms, implying that discriminating firms face the risk of a significant penalty. Other European countries have been reluctant to use such tests as a tool for counteracting discrimination and discuss a much softer version with only monitoring. In this study two labor market field experiments, sending qualitatively identical job applications with randomly assigned Swedish and Middle Eastern sounding names to employers, show that ethnic discrimination exists in hiring in the Swedish labor market. In both studies extensive media coverage occurred when being only halfway finished informing employers of their hiring practices being monitored by such situation testing. This study utilizes these unique events and the data from the experiments to perform a difference-in-differences analysis of whether discrimination decreased after the media coverage. The results reveal no sign of employers changing their hiring practices when being aware of running the risk of being included in such an experiment. This suggests that the detection risk alone is not sufficient if authorities wish to use field experiments as a discrimination prevention strategy. Instead, it must be combined with some penalty to become effective.

This paper contribute to the existing literature on ethnic discrimination of immigrants in hiring by addressing the central question of what employers act on in a job application. The method involved sending qualitatively identical resumes signalling belonging to different ethnic groups to firms advertising for labour. The results show that whether the applicant has a native sounding or a foreign sounding name explains approximately 77 per cent of the total gap in the probability of being invited to an interview between natives and immigrants, while having foreign qualifications only explains the remaining 23 per cent. This in turn, suggests a lower bound for statistical discrimination of approximately 23 per cent of total discrimination. The analysis indicates further that the 77 per cent are most likely driven by a mixture of preference-based and statistical discrimination.

Using a two stage correspondence test methodology, this study tests employer priors against job-applicants with Arabic names compared to job-applicants with Swedish names. In the first stage, employers are sent CVs of equal observable quality. Thereafter, in the second stage, the CVs with Arabic names are given an advantage of, on average, two more years of relevant work experience. This setup allows us to test the strength of unfavorable priors against job-applicants with Arabic names and to what degree these priors are revised, on average, when resumes are enhanced. Results indicate no significant differences in call-backs for female applicants when CVs with Arabic names are enhanced. The call-back gap for men however remains large and signifcant despite a positive adjustment of CVs with Arabic names. This implies that negative priors against male job applicants with Arabic names are not revised by an increase in observable merits.

This study uses the findings of a correspondence testing in order to assess the potential discrimination at job access level against young people of ethnic origin from the underprivileged suburbs of the Paris area (Ile-de-France). We measure simultaneously the effects of place of residence (privileged or underprivileged city), of nationality (French or Moroccan), and of sound of surname and of forename on the chances of obtaining a job interview when answering a job ad. We base our assessment on a controlled experiment conducted on the profession of accountant. We constructed 16 jobseeker profiles and sent 1097 resumes in reply to 140 job vacancies advertised at the end of 2006. We find evidence of a significant discrimination against the candidates with a foreign origin., Cette étude utilise les résultats d'un test de correspondance afin d'évaluer la discrimination potentielle lors de l'accès aux entretiens d'embauche, pour les jeunes d'origine étrangère résidant dans des communes défavorisées d'Île de France. Nous mesurons simultanément les effets de la commune de résidence (ville favorisée ou défavorisée), de la nationalité (française ou marocaine) et de la consonance du nom et du prénom, sur les chances d'obtenir un entretien d'embauche en réponse à une offre d'emploi. Notre évaluation repose sur une expérience contrôlée réalisée sur la profession de comptable. Nous avons construit 16 profils de candidature et avons envoyé 1097 CV en réponse à 140 offres d'emploi postées à la fin de l'année 2006. Nous trouvons qu'il existe une discrimination significative à l'encontre des candidats d'origine étrangère.

In this Paper, we suggest a novel approach to programme evaluation that allows identification of the causal effect of a training programme on the likelihood of being invited to a job interview under weak assumptions. The idea is to measure the programme-effects by pre- and post-treatment data that are very close in time for the same individual. Our approach provides useful information on both average effects of the programme as well as information on potential differences in the effects of the programme by type of vacancy or by individual.