Age Discrimination across the Business Cycle†

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dahl, Gordon B.; Knepper, Matthew
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California San Diego; Norwegian School of Economics (NHH); National Bureau of Economic Research; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; IZA Institute Labor Economics; University System of Georgia; University of Georgia
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20210169
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 75-112
• 关键词: labor-market conditions; Older workers; field experiment; job loss; unemployment; EMPLOYMENT; recessions; duration; GENDER; immigrants

摘要

We test whether age discrimination rises during recessions using two complementary analyses. Confidential EEOC microdata reveal that age-related firing and hiring charges rise by 3.3 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively, for each percentage point increase in a state-industry's monthly unemployment. Though the opportunity cost of filing falls, the fraction of meritorious claims increases-a suf-ficient condition for rising discrimination under plausible assump-tions. Second, we repurpose data from hiring correspondence studies conducted across different cities and time periods during the recovery from the Great Recession. Each percentage point increase in local unemployment reduces the callback rate for older versus younger women by 15 percent. (JEL E32, J14, J16, J23, J71, M51)