Social Identity and Hiring Outcomes in the Turkish Labor Market: A Correspondence Experiment

Last registered on July 27, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Social Identity and Hiring Outcomes in the Turkish Labor Market: A Correspondence Experiment
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0019244
Initial registration date
July 25, 2026

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
July 27, 2026, 7:05 AM EDT

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

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Primary Investigator

Name
Can Karaarslan
Affiliation
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-07-26
End date
2027-09-30
Keywords
Agriculture, Behavior, Environment & Energy, Firms & Productivity, Gender, Labor
Additional Keywords
Correspondence experiment, audit study, field experiment, hiring discrimination, ethnic discrimination, gender discrimination, labor market discrimination, hiring, recruitment, callbacks, employers, green jobs, green transition, Türkiye
JEL code(s)
C93, J15, J16, J71, Q56
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study investigates whether social identity influences hiring outcomes in the Turkish labor market using a randomized correspondence experiment. Fictitious job applications with equivalent qualifications, work experience, and education will be submitted to publicly advertised vacancies across multiple occupations and regions in Türkiye. The applications will differ only in the applicant’s signaled ethnicity and gender. Employer responses, including callback invitations, requests for additional information, and rejections, will be recorded to measure differential treatment during the initial stage of recruitment. The study also examines whether hiring outcomes vary across occupations, sectors, regions, and over time. The findings will contribute to a better understanding of hiring discrimination and labor market inequality in Türkiye.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Karaarslan, Can. 2026. "Social Identity and Hiring Outcomes in the Turkish Labor Market: A Correspondence Experiment." AEA RCT Registry. July 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.19244-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This study uses a correspondence-experiment design to investigate hiring outcomes in the Turkish labor market. Fictitious job applications with equivalent qualifications will be submitted to publicly advertised vacancies. Applicant profiles will differ only with respect to identity characteristics, allowing the study to examine whether employer responses differ during the initial stage of recruitment.
Intervention Start Date
2026-07-26
Intervention End Date
2027-09-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Callback
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
A callback is defined as any non-automated employer response indicating interest in continuing the recruitment process. This includes interview invitations and requests for additional information or documents. Automatic acknowledgements, explicit rejections, and the absence of any response are not classified as callbacks. The primary outcome is measured as a binary indicator equal to one if a callback is received and zero otherwise.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Response type, Response time
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Response type will be classified as interview invitation or request for additional information, rejection, or no response. Response time will be measured as the number of days between the submission of an application and the employer response.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This study employs a randomized between-subject correspondence-experiment design. Equivalent fictitious job applications will be randomly assigned to publicly advertised vacancies. Each vacancy will receive one application. The design permits causal estimation of the effect of applicant identity characteristics on employer responses during the initial stage of recruitment.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Applications will be assigned to vacancies using a computer-generated randomization procedure. Randomization is designed to ensure a balanced distribution of applicant identities across occupations, provinces, regions, and sectors. Each publicly advertised vacancy will receive one randomly assigned application.
Randomization Unit
The unit of randomization is the individual employer.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Not applicable. The treatment is not clustered. The unit of randomization is the individual employer.
Sample size: planned number of observations
The study aims to include 8100 job applications.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Each of the four treatment arms will comprise 2025 applications.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Assuming a baseline callback rate of 15%, a two-sided significance level of 5%, statistical power of 80%, balanced assignment across four treatment arms, and no clustering, the planned sample of 8,100 applications provides a minimum detectable difference of approximately 2.3 percentage points for the main ethnicity and gender comparisons. The binary callback outcome has an assumed standard deviation of approximately 0.357 under the baseline callback rate.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
North Star Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2026-07-24
IRB Approval Number
NB600439
Analysis Plan