Experimental Design
For this experiment, we partner with buscojobs.com, a platform that allows companies to advertise job offers. Following the procedures in Leibbrandt and List (2015), the experiment is divided into three stages.
Stage 1. A job position is posted in the platform. The job consists of cleaning and preparing a database to be used by a group of researchers. During the first stage, all people interested in the job can apply using the portal. During the initial application process, subjects must provide personal information and their qualifications related to the job.
Stage 2. After the first stage is over, applicants are randomly allocated to one of the treatments.
In the Gender-Reveal treatment (GR, hereafter), applicants receive an email in which they are told that they must fill a standardized curriculum vitae template to continue with the process. Applicants provide: i) full name and surname, ii) highest education level achieved, iii) job experience, iv) age, and v) current work status. The last field that people complete is the desired hourly wage. Filling in the template takes on average 10 minutes. People were given a deadline of a month to provide the required information.
The Gender-Blind treatment (GB, hereafter) is the same except applicants are told that they will be hired only based on merits and are asked to provide only their initials. After filling in the required information, candidates are asked for their desired hourly wage.
Stage 3. After the deadline for applications, applicants in the second stage are randomly assigned to a “hiring committee” that decides who is finally hired. The committee is composed of a predetermined number of people (ranging from 6 to 10 members) with the same number of male and female members. Applicants do not know the number of people in the committee. The hiring process is as follows. The members of the committee are presented with an average of 24 applications (12 male candidates and 12 female candidates). The information that the hiring committee receives was provided by the applicants in the second stage of the process. Members of the committee were briefed about the characteristics of the available job, and they were asked to independently rank the first five candidates in the pool. The highest ranked candidate by a member of the committee obtains 5 points, the second highest obtains 4 points, and so on until the fifth ranked candidate, who obtains 1 point. All committee members rank the candidates, and the total number of points are computed for each candidate. The candidate with the most points is the one who is offered the job. If the first candidate does not accept the job, the second ranked candidate is offered the position. This process continues until one candidate accepts the offer. The candidates knew that there is a hiring committee, but they are not aware of these details.
Members of the hiring committee are also informed about their payment scheme. Hiring committee members’ earnings depend on the performance of the candidate who is hired by the committee. All members of the committee earn the same amount (regardless of how they rank the candidates). Each committee member receives a fixed amount of $5, plus a bonus that depends on the performance of the hired candidate and the salary paid to her. In particular, the payoff function is described below:
Payment=$5+$0.01*(#processed data)-(hourly salary requested)