Discrimination at the Intersection of Age, Race, and Gender

• In Event: 4144 - Emerging Frontiers in Research on Discrimination

Abstract

This paper uses a laboratory experiment with randomized resumes and eyetracking to explore the effects of race on employment discrimination over the lifecycle. We find striking evidence of race discrimination against prime-age black job applicants that diminishes into middle age before re-emerging for older applicants. We find that screeners mechanically process black and white resumes very similarly, but spend less time on younger black resumes, suggesting that they use negative heuristics or taste-based discrimination during screening. We find evidence of levels-based statistical discrimination suggesting that screeners believe younger black applicants to have worse computer skills and more gaps in their job histories. We find no evidence that screeners believe black applicants to have worse previous experience than white applicants. We also find evidence for variance-based statistical discrimination against black applicants of all ages, suggesting that screeners perceive the job history signal to be stronger for white applicants than for black, with this type of discrimination disproportionately harming older black applicants. We find suggestive evidence that the signal sent by high school attended is weaker for younger black applicants compared to younger white applicants, and we find no evidence that the signal strength of the applicant’s address varies by race. Evidence from the CPS and a smaller additional study supports the external validity of our experiment, particularly for female job applicants. Results are robust to a number of different controls and specification choices.

Authors

• Joanna Lahey, Texas A&M University

• Douglas R. Oxley, Texas A&M University