Discriminating attitudes, employment decisions, and wage setting at the workplace: evidence from experimental vignettes in a developing country
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18381/eq.v23i2.7386Abstract
Objective: We study how a worker’s personal demographic characteristics affect wage setting and employment decisions among the personnel of a random sample of Mexico City’s service sector firms. Methodology: We use experimental vignettes and multivariate regression analysis. Results: Net of an explicit productivity measure, we find a discriminatory employment penalty of 11% from Central and south America workers. There is also a penalty for workers with asymmetric faces of 9% that is present only when operatives take firing decisions. For wages, we find a wage penalty for workers with asymmetric faces of 2.6% in the operatives sample but not significant effect inthe managers’ sample. Originality: A novel experimental vignettes design is used for analysis. Conclusions: There is compelling evidence that wage setting and employment dismissal decisions are affected by discriminatory attitudes/prejudices in Mexico City’s service sector.Downloads
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