Discrimination of the Second Generation: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Norway

Abstract

A major question in labour market research is the extent to which discrimination in employments causes the disadvantages experienced by children of immigrants. This article contributes to the debate by utilising a correspondence test study in which pairs of equivalent résumés and cover letters-one with a Pakistani name and one with a Norwegian name-were sent in response to 900 job openings in the greater Oslo area. The results show that applicants with Norwegian names on average are 25 % more likely to receive a call back for a job interview than equally qualified applicants with Pakistani names. More refined analyses demonstrate that the effect of ethnic background on employment probabilities is larger among men than women and larger in the private sector than in the public sector, and important variations among the occupations included in the study are revealed. In an effort to separate the potentially conflating effects of gender and sector, all applications to gender-segregated occupations were removed from the analyses. Interestingly, the gender differences disappear when exclusively analysing discrimination in gender-integrated occupations by sector. In gender-integrated occupations in the private sector, the gender difference in fact is reversed, indicating that women with minority background are treated less favourably than are minority men in the private sector. These results suggest that the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and sector should be scrutinised more carefully in future field experiments.

The employability of ex-offenders: a field experiment in the Swedish labor market

“…Second, future studies should evaluate how criminal background interacts with other individual traits, especially those that are known to have a negative impact on people's employability. We know, for example, that immigrants are discriminated against in the labor market in most European countries (see, e.g., Baert et al 2017;Baert and Vujić 2016;Carlsson and Rooth 2007;Midtbøen 2016). Do immigrants with a criminal background then face a double penalty in the hiring situation?…”

Ethnic discrimination in hiring decisions: a meta-analysis of correspondence tests 1990–2015

“…In several studies using correspondence tests it is suggested that discrimination is higher in private companies and that the chances of minority applicants to be invited for a job interview are greater in public companies (e.g. Wood et al 2009, Eid 2012, Midtbøen 2014. Our analysis confirms the assumption that public employers are less likely to discriminate against minority applicants, with the mean call back rate for private employers at 1.65, and a corresponding call back rate for the public sector at 1.19.…”

Revisiting Ethics in Correspondence Testing

“…As with the email addresses discussed above it is, however, not possible to provide employers with this confirmation without openly lying. To my knowledge there are only two correspondence tests that made use of online application forms, which are Wood et al (2009) andMidtbøen (2014a).…”