Will Job Testing Harm Minority Workers?

56 Pages Posted: 30 Sep 2004 Last revised: 30 Nov 2022

See all articles by David H. Autor

David H. Autor

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

David Scarborough

Unicru, Inc.

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: September 2004

Abstract

Because minorities typically fare poorly on standardized tests, job testing is thought to pose an equity-efficiency trade-off: testing improves selection but reduces minority hiring. We develop a conceptual framework to assess when this tradeoff is likely to apply and evaluate the evidence for such a trade-off using data from a national retail firm whose 1,363 stores switched from informal to test-based worker screening over the course of on year. We document that testing yielded more productive hires at this firm -- raising median tenure by 10-plus percent. Consistent with prior research, minorities performed worse on the test. Yet, testing had no measurable impact on minority hiring, and productivity gains were uniformly large among minorities and non-minorities. These results suggest that job testing raised the precision of screening without introducing additional negative information about minority applicants, most plausibly because both the job test and the informal screen that preceded it were unbiased.

Suggested Citation

Autor, David H. and Scarborough, David, Will Job Testing Harm Minority Workers? (September 2004). NBER Working Paper No. w10763, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=592142

David H. Autor (Contact Author)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Economics ( email )

50 Memorial Drive
Room E52-371
Cambridge, MA 02142-1347
United States
617-258-7698 (Phone)
617-253-1330 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://web.mit.edu/dautor/www

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

David Scarborough

Unicru, Inc. ( email )

9525 SW Gemini Drive
Bearverton, OR 97008
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
59
Abstract Views
2,111
Rank
202,355
PlumX Metrics