Anonymous Job Applications of Fresh Ph.D. Economists

17 Pages Posted: 20 Nov 2011 Last revised: 16 Apr 2023

See all articles by Annabelle Krause-Pilatus

Annabelle Krause-Pilatus

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Ulf Rinne

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Klaus F. Zimmermann

Global Labor Organization (GLO); UNU-MERIT; Maastricht University, Department of Economics; Free University Berlin; University of Bonn; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Journal of Population Economics

Abstract

Discrimination in recruitment decisions is well documented. Anonymous job applications may reduce discriminatory behavior in hiring. This paper analyzes the potential of this approach in a randomized experiment with fresh Ph.D. economists on the academic job market using data from a European-based economic research institution. If included in the treatment group, characteristics such as name, gender, age, contact details and nationality were removed. Results show that anonymous job applications are in general not associated with a higher or lower probability to receive an invitation for a job interview. However, we find that while female applicants have a higher probability to receive an interview invitation than male applicants with standard applications, this difference disappears with anonymous job applications. We furthermore present evidence that certain professional signals are weighted differently with and without anonymization.

Keywords: Ph.D. economists, discrimination, randomized experiment, anonymous job applications, annual job market

JEL Classification: J44, J79, J20

Suggested Citation

Krause-Pilatus, Annabelle and Rinne, Ulf and Zimmermann, Klaus F., Anonymous Job Applications of Fresh Ph.D. Economists. IZA Discussion Paper No. 6100, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1962158 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1962158

Annabelle Krause-Pilatus (Contact Author)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Ulf Rinne

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.iza.org/profile?key=1844

Klaus F. Zimmermann

Global Labor Organization (GLO) ( email )

Bonn
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://https://glabor.org/

UNU-MERIT ( email )

Keizer Karelplein 19
Maastricht, 6211TC
Netherlands

Maastricht University, Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, Limburg 6200MD
Netherlands

University of Bonn

Postfach 2220
Bonn, D-53012
Germany

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Journal of Population Economics

Tiergartenstr. 17
D-69121 Heidelberg
Germany

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