Age Discrimination across the Business Cycle
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
vol. 15,
no. 4, November 2023
(pp. 75-112)
Abstract
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 sufficient condition for rising discrimination under plausible assumptions. 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.Citation
Dahl, Gordon B., and Matthew Knepper. 2023. "Age Discrimination across the Business Cycle." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 15 (4): 75-112. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20210169Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- E32 Business Fluctuations; Cycles
- J14 Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-labor Market Discrimination
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- J23 Labor Demand
- J71 Labor Discrimination
- M51 Personnel Economics: Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions
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