What Does a Job Candidate's Age Signal to Employers?

Van Borm, Hannah, Burn, Ian ORCID: 0000-0001-5351-5524 and Baert, Stijn (2021) What Does a Job Candidate's Age Signal to Employers? LABOUR ECONOMICS, 71. p. 102003.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2021.102003

Abstract

Research has shown that hiring discrimination is a barrier for older job candidates in many OECD countries. However, little research has delved into why these job candidates face discrimination. Therefore, we have conducted an online scenario experiment involving recruiters to empirically investigate 15 potential stigmas related to older age drawn from a systematic review of the literature. We found that older age particularly signals to recruiters that the applicant has lower technological skills, flexibility, and trainability levels. Together, these perceptions explain about 41% of the effect of age on the probability of being invited to a job interview. Additionally, we found that the negative association between age and the invitation to interview probability is smaller when recruiters work for firms with a higher percentage of older employees.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	hiring, statistical discrimination, age, stereotypes
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Management
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	25 Oct 2021 10:06
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2023 21:25
DOI:	10.1016/j.labeco.2021.102003
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3141593