Bad Hiring Chances for Older Workers

33 Pages Posted: 18 Jul 2009

See all articles by Victoria Büsch

Victoria Büsch

SRH University Berlin

Dennis Alexis Valin Dittrich

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Manfred Königstein

University of Erfurt

Date Written: July 2009

Abstract

It is often claimed that work opportunities decline with age, that hiring chances of older persons are poor. We investigate this by collecting questionnaire responses of personnel managers of German manufacturing firms, eliciting a hypothetical hiring decision based on three fictitious candidates. We rely on an age-neutral job and a small age-gap of 14 years between the youngest and the oldest candidate. The quasi-experimental design of the questionnaire allows to control for possible productivity differences and other economic explanations for declining hiring chances. The data show a 60 percentage point difference in hiring probabilities between the youngest and oldest candidate.

Keywords: Discrimination, Hiring Decision, Labor Market, Questionnaire Study

JEL Classification: J11, J14, J23, J71

Suggested Citation

Büsch, Victoria and Dittrich, Dennis Alexis Valin and Königstein, Manfred, Bad Hiring Chances for Older Workers (July 2009). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1434351 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1434351

Victoria Büsch

SRH University Berlin ( email )

Ernst Reuter Platz 10
Berlin, 10587
Germany

Dennis Alexis Valin Dittrich (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Manfred Königstein

University of Erfurt ( email )

Internationales Buro
Nordhaeuser Str. 63
D - 99089 Erfurt
Germany

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