Employment discrimination in a former Soviet Union Republic: Evidence from a field experiment

Abstract

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Labour market discrimination and the macroeconomy

“…Baert, Cockx, Gheyle, and Vandamme (2015) provided the first experimental evidence to support this hypothesis for hiring decisions. More recently, Asali et al (2018), using a mix of experimental and observational data, also provided suggestive evidence to support the labour market tightness hypothesis for hiring decisions in Georgia. Boulware and Kuttner (2019) found that increases in unemployment lead to more frequent discrimination charges in the US.…”

“…Using a field experiment, Asali et al (2018) measured the extent of gender and ethnic employment discrimination (at the hiring stage) in Georgia. The study found a large ethnic gap in callbacks but no evidence for a similar gender gap.…”

“…Discrimination in all its forms but particularly in labour markets inhibits the productivity and growth of countries (Asali, Pignatti, & Skhirtladze, 2018;Bandiera & Natraj, 2013). This effect is mainly due to the misallocation of resources, which explains much of the variation in income and productivity across and within countries (Hsieh, Hurst, Jones, & Klenow, 2019;Munshi & Rosenzweig, 2016).…”

Gender and ethnic wage differentials inhibit growth: A shred of evidence

“…Other strands of the literature use experimental methods to directly measure discrimination in hiring, for example, by sending fictitious resumes to employers in response to help-wanted advertisements and then comparing the "call-back" rates between the different groups (Bertrand and Mullainathan 2004;Asali et al 2018).…”

Gender Pay Gaps in the Former Soviet Union: A Review of the Evidence

“…In a rare analysis focusing on the FSU region, Asali et al . () evaluate the evidence of labor market discrimination at the hiring stage. They conduct an experiment in which fictitious resumes of otherwise identical men and women were uploaded on several Georgian employment service web sites.…”