Gender discrimination in hiring processes in Bogota: A correspondence Study

We want to explore whether employers discriminate against workers based on potential/effective parenthood and sex. Hence, we will send 6 resumes and profiles to each vacancy in an online job repository as follows:

i) female + potential mother + children sign
ii) female + potential mother + no children sign
iii) female + not potential mother + children sign
iv) female + not potential mother + no children sign
v) Male + children sign
vi) Male + no children sign

2023-10-16

2023-12-15

Callback rates

Our main outcome variable is a binary variable that is zero if the profile does not receive a callback for an interview and one if the profile receives a callback

We will send 6 resumes and profiles to each vacancy combined as follows:

i) female + potential mother + children sign
ii) female + potential mother + no children sign
iii) female + not potential mother + children sign
iv) female + not potential mother + no children sign
v) Male + children sign
vi) Male + no children sign

This design will allow us to i) differentiate discrimination based on potential and effective parenthood, and ii) study discrimination patterns between and within sex groups. In the case of effective parenthood, we will signal the candidate's parental status by including or not including the father/mother's membership in a school's parent association in the resume. Furthermore, in the case of potential parenthood, we will signal the candidate's potential to have children in the future through the age. The age of potential mothers will randomly vary between 20 and 30 years old, and the age of non-potential mothers will randomly vary between 40 and 50 years old. For male applicants, the age will be the same of the female applicants.

Each vacancy we apply to will receive applications from all six profiles

Vacancy (job posting)

Yes

1000 job postings (vacancies)

6,000 applications to 1,000 job postings (vacancies)

2,000 applications control (male); 2,000 applications T1 (female potential mothers), 2,000 applications T2 (female effective mothers)

We conduct power calculations by simulation since we have no pre-intervention data on callback rates for individuals. We consider different number of vacancies where we will apply with the six profiles. We simulate a binary outcome with a normal distribution with mean 0.05 (5% callback rate) and standard deviation 0.25, calculating power for different effect sizes (from 1 to 10 percentage points). This process is repeated 10,000 times for each fixed number of vacancies and effect size. Sending six applications to each vacancy would allow us to estimate a minimum detectable effect of 0.032 or 3.2 percentage points from the control group mean

PAP