Does previous work experience help to find an apprenticeship? Field experimental evidence on discrimination against (underage) students when looking for a job in Germany

Last registered on January 12, 2024

Pre-Trial

General Information

Title

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0012833

Initial registration date

January 12, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

January 12, 2024, 3:47 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name

Ekkehard Köhler

Affiliation

Siegen University

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Dilara Wiemann

PI Affiliation

University of Siegen

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Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2024-01-21

End date

2024-05-31

Keywords

Education, Labor

Additional Keywords

Keywords Behavior, Education, Gender Additional Keywords Majority vs. Minority Group, Discrimination, High School Admission, Racism

JEL code(s)

C93, D73, J15, H75, I24

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Numerous studies in the field of discrimination research find discrimination in the hiring process of applicants from ethnic minorities (e.g. Bertrand and Duflo 2017, Carlson and Roth 2006; Kaas and Manger 2011, SVR 2014). Apart from an observational study from Norway (Helland and Støren 2006), little is known about pre K-12 discrimination against students who apply for an apprenticeship or vocational training when leaving middle school. Although ten-thousands are enrolled in this type of Vocational Training with cooperation and businesses, it has not yet been researched whether certificates of prior economic knowledge can mitigate the disadvantages of preference-based discrimination (e.g. rascism). We conducted a field experiment to examine these research questions with empirical data.
In a randomized, controlled study, starting in spring of 2024, we sent around 8 k email inquiries in three business sectors (public administration, industry and services) to companies that had reported training positions to local job centers in German cities. We block-randomized the treatments into (5*2*2*2 = 50) dimensions at the level of industries and federal states: First, we varied the migration background (German, Turkish, Russian, Arab and Jewish) of the applicants by choosing German, Turkish or Russian or Israeli or Arab given sounding names. Second, we varied the gender (female vs. male) of the applicants. Third, we varied the expected grade point average (very good vs. satisfactory) after 10 years of school with the completion of the technical college entrance qualification. The fourth treatment dimension varied previous economic knowledge acquired in an internship.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Köhler, Ekkehard and Dilara Wiemann. 2024. "Does previous work experience help to find an apprenticeship? Field experimental evidence on discrimination against (underage) students when looking for a job in Germany ." AEA RCT Registry. January 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12833-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

In a randomized, controlled study, starting in spring of 2024, we sent around 8 k email inquiries in three business sectors (public administration, industry and services) to companies that had reported training positions to local job centers in German cities. We block-randomized the treatments into (5*2*2*2 = 50) dimensions at the level of industries and federal states: First, we varied the migration background (German, Turkish, Russian, Arab and Jewish) of the applicants by choosing German, Turkish or Russian or Israeli or Arab given sounding names. Second, we varied the gender (female vs. male) of the applicants. Third, we varied the expected grade point average (very good vs. satisfactory) after 10 years of school with the completion of the technical college entrance qualification. The fourth treatment dimension varied previous economic knowledge acquired in an internship.

Intervention Start Date

2024-01-21

Intervention End Date

2024-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

The primary outcome variable is responsiveness of the addressed high schools. Responsiveness is measured as follows. If we observe a non-automated response to our treatment email, we mark it as “1”. If we do not observe a non-automated response, we mark it as “0”.
(i) We expect that the overall responsiveness towards inquirers without immigrant background is higher compared to high school's responsiveness towards inquirers with immigrant background.
(ii) We expect that high schools within districts that have a higher share of immigrants answer more frequently to inquirers with an immigrant background than schools in districts that have a low share of immigrants.
(iii) We expect that schools are more responsive to male compared to female inquirers.
(iv) We expect that schools are more responsive to inquirers with high GPA compared to inquirers with low GPA

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

(i) There is evidence that German elites rather respond to inquiries made by people without immigrant background compared to inquiries made by people with immigrant background.
(ii) We expect this outcome due to pre-tests in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
(iii) These expectations are based on the observation from pre-tests in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It can also be explained by gender studies.
(iv) This outcome can be driven by rational choice: High-GPA students are preferred by businesses over low-GPA students.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Apart from responsiveness we are interested in the tonality and the text length of the written answers to the students. We expect that the tonality also varies across the treatment dimensions. This will be an additional variable we will use once we have a sufficient number of observations. In addition, we are interested in categorizing the answers between helpful answers, rejections and other categories that exemplify good, bad or even ugly answer types.
(i) We expect that migrant inquires receive non-helpful answers more often compared to non-migration inquires.
(ii) We expect that that migrant inquires receive neutral or even negative answers more often compared to non-migrant inquires.
(iii) We expect that non-migrant inquirers receive shorter answers compared to migrant inquires because respondents are spending more time to write non-helpful or negative answers compared to positive answers.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

All effects are based on rational behavior or cognitive dissonances:
(i) The respondent shows discrimination not by neglect but by choosing a lower effort level.
(ii) The respondent shows discrimination not by neglect but by choosing a lower effort level quality.
(iii) We believe that humans who are intentionally discriminate are aware of this action and justify their behavior by writing longer answers.

Experimental Design

we sent around 8 k email inquiries in three business sectors (public administration, industry and services) to companies that had reported training positions to local job centers in German cities. We block-randomized the treatments into (5*2*2*2 = 50) dimensions at the level of industries and federal states: First, we varied the migration background (German, Turkish, Russian, Arab and Jewish) of the applicants by choosing German, Turkish or Russian or Israeli or Arab given sounding names. Second, we varied the gender (female vs. male) of the applicants. Third, we varied the expected grade point average (very good vs. satisfactory) after 10 years of school with the completion of the technical college entrance qualification. The fourth treatment dimension varied previous economic knowledge acquired in an internship.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Randomization is done in office by a computer.

Randomization Unit

State level and secoral level

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Between 160 clusters with respect to randomization unit (state level). 50 clusters with respect to treatment clusters (three binary dimensions * 5 dimensions for racial background) within randomization unit.

Sample size: planned number of observations

8k obs are expected.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name

Rat für Ethik in der Forschung Universität Siegen

IRB Approval Date

2021-07-27

IRB Approval Number

ER_35/2021

Analysis Plan