Double Discrimination: Is Discrimination in Job Ads Accompanied by Discrimination in Callbacks?

In Mexico, an overlooked aspect of this discrimination is that job advertisements usually include explicit criteria of gender, age, attractiveness, or require a photograph in the resume. First, a reduction in matching costs... [ view full abstract ]

In Mexico, an overlooked aspect of this discrimination is that job advertisements usually include explicit criteria of gender, age, attractiveness, or require a photograph in the resume. First, a reduction in matching costs may result in a higher callback rate from explicitly discriminating employers. Second, discrimination in the first stage of the hiring process could lead to other discrimination patterns in later stages. We test for such biases using a correspondence experiment, in which fictitious resumes with randomized applicant information were sent in response to job advertisements in Mexico City. Employers with explicitly discriminatory ads are 8.2 percentage points more likely to call at least one female candidate for an interview than ads without explicit discrimination. With respect to our second hypothesis, the probability of a callback is close to 20 percentage points lower for married women responding to ads specifically targeted to women than for those responding to neutral ads. With respect to race, we find that only ads that include two or more discriminatory criteria resulted in a higher callback probability for white or mestizo women than for indigenous women or women with no photograph in their resumes. We find no economically significant results for men.