Political Context and Employment Discrimination

Last registered on October 28, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Political Context and Employment Discrimination
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014044
Initial registration date
October 25, 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
October 28, 2024, 1:25 PM EDT

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
Yinan Wang
Affiliation
Harvard University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-10-28
End date
2026-02-28
Keywords
Behavior, Firms & Productivity, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Employers’ decision-making processes are constantly shaped, enabled, and restricted by their organizational, institutional, and societal contexts. While most studies focus on the immediate organizational context, few consider macro-level dynamics such as social traditions, customs, and political climate. This study addresses this gap by examining the role of political context in employers’ hiring decisions. It asks the question: To what extent does the influence of political context on hiring discrimination against immigrants vary across counties with different political orientations? An audit study is conducted in counties with varying political leanings in four states to answer this question. The results illustrate how employers leverage contextual factors beyond applicants’ personal characteristics in hiring decisions and highlight the labor market consequences amid political polarization.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Wang, Yinan. 2024. "Political Context and Employment Discrimination." AEA RCT Registry. October 28. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14044-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2024-10-28
Intervention End Date
2026-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The main outcome of interest is whether an applicant receives a callback for an interview.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
A field experiment will be conducted to examine how local political context influences employers’ discriminatory hiring practices. To this end, an audit study will be conducted from October 2024 to February 2026 across three sets of counties, chosen to represent diverse political environments: predominantly conservative, predominantly liberal, and politically neutral without significant partisan bias. Paired fictitious applications will be submitted for each job opening, with all attributes of the applicants held constant except for their immigration status. One applicant in each pair will be designated as a Mexican immigrant and the other as a White, native-born individual. Applicants’ immigrant status is the primary independent variable. The moderator is local political leanings. The main outcome of interest is whether an applicant receives a callback, which will be coded as a binary variable. The timeline of this audit study provides an opportunity to examine regional variation in employer discrimination that may result from the heightened political climate following the 2024 presidential election.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
randomization will be done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
The randomization unit is the job opening. For each job opening, applications with one randomly selected migration status will be sent out first, with a one-day interval between each paired submission.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
3,000 job positions
Sample size: planned number of observations
6,000 resumes for 3,000 job positions
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
2,000 resumes will be sent to1,000 job positions in highly republican counties
2,000 resumes will be sent to1,000 job positions in highly democratic counties
2,000 resumes will be sent to1,000 job positions in politically neutral counties
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Political Context and Employer Decision-Making
IRB Approval Date
2024-08-16
IRB Approval Number
IRB24-0199
Analysis Plan