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Field Before After
Trial Status on_going completed
Abstract The study aims at capturing how employers value job seeker's signaling of socio-emotional skills and the effectiveness of these signals for male and female candidates. This is done using a a field experiment (correspondence or audit study), consisting of applying to real vacancy postings in 2 large cities in Turkey in five sectors on a large online jobs platform with fictitious resumes of comparable female and male candidates. We randomly assign the signaling of socio-emotional skills to candidates. The study attempts to answer the following questions: (a) Do employers discriminate job applicants based on gender? (b) Do employers respond to a signal of socio-emotional skills on a resume , and (c) Does the effectiveness of the signal of socio-emotional skills in terms of the call-back rate for an interview or job differ for men and women? A vast literature shows the importance of socioemotional skills in earnings and employment, but whether they matter in getting hired remains unanswered. This study seeks to address this question and further investigates whether socioemotional skill signals in job applicants’ resumes have the same value for male and female candidates. In a large-scale randomized audit study, an online job portal in Turkey is used to send fictitious resumes to real job openings, collecting a unique data set that enables investigating different stages of candidate screening. The study finds that socioemotional skills appear to be valued only when an employer specifically asks for such skills in the vacancy ad. When not asked for, however, candidates can face a penalty in the form of lower callback rates. A significant penalty is only observed for women, not for men. The study does not find evidence of other gender differences in the hiring process.
Last Published February 14, 2018 10:33 AM February 18, 2020 05:17 PM
Study Withdrawn No
Intervention Completion Date January 31, 2018
Data Collection Complete Yes
Was attrition correlated with treatment status? No
Data Collection Completion Date March 31, 2018
Is data available for public use? No
Additional Keyword(s) gender, socio-emotional skills, correspondece gender, socio-emotional skills, correspondence, discrimination
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Papers

Field Before After
Paper Abstract A vast literature shows the importance of socioemotional skills in earnings and employment, but whether they matter in getting hired remains unanswered. This study seeks to address this question and further investigates whether socioemotional skill signals in job applicants’ resumes have the same value for male and female candidates. In a large-scale randomized audit study, an online job portal in Turkey is used to send fictitious resumes to real job openings, collecting a unique data set that enables investigating different stages of candidate screening. The study finds that socioemotional skills appear to be valued only when an employer specifically asks for such skills in the vacancy ad. When not asked for, however, candidates can face a penalty in the form of lower callback rates. A significant penalty is only observed for women, not for men. The study does not find evidence of other gender differences in the hiring process.
Paper Citation Nas Ozen, Selin Efsan; Hut, Stefan; Levin, Victoria; Munoz Boudet, Ana Maria. 2020. A Field Experiment on the Role of Socioemotional Skills and Gender for Hiring in Turkey (English). Policy Research working paper; no. WPS 9154. Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group
Paper URL http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/285701582055500779/pdf/A-Field-Experiment-on-the-Role-of-Socioemotional-Skills-and-Gender-for-Hiring-in-Turkey.pdf
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Fields Removed

Other Primary Investigators

Field Value
Affiliation Middle East Technical University
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