Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/316903 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 11789
Publisher: 
CESifo GmbH, Munich
Abstract: 
We study the gendered impact of recommendations at different stages of the hiring process. First, using a large sample of reference letters from the academic job market for economists, we document that women receive fewer 'ability' and more 'grindstone' letters. Next, we conduct two experiments — with academic economists and a broader, college-educated, population —analyzing both recommendation and recruitment stages. These confirm that recommendations are gendered and impact recruitment. We elicit gender views and beliefs about the effectiveness of different letter types, uncovering that gender attitudes and strategic behavior based on erroneous beliefs explain referees' choices. Finally, we decompose gender recruitment gaps into two components: one capturing differences in treatment of candidates with identical qualities, the other reflecting recruiters' failure to account for gendered patterns in recommendations. We show that recruiters' failure to recognize the gendered nature of reference letters undermines visible efforts to improve diversity in hiring.
Subjects: 
gender
recruitment
diversity
experiments
JEL: 
J16
A11
D90
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.