Determinants of Callbacks to Job Applications: An Audit Study
Henry S. Farber, Dan Silverman, Till von Wachter
American Economic Review · 2016 · Volume 106 · Issue 5
Abstract
We summarize findings from an audit study investigating how unemployment duration, age, and holding a low-level "interim" job affect the likelihood that experienced college-educated females applying for administrative support jobs receive a callback from potential employers. The results show no relationship between callback rates and unemployment duration. In contrast, workers age 50 and older and workers with an "interim" job are significantly less likely to receive callbacks. We also summarize disparate findings in the growing literature of resume-based audit studies of career histories, and discuss avenues in which the literature could achieve results that are more comparable and externally valid.
Keywords
Employment, Unemployment, Wages, Intergenerational Income Distribution, Aggregate Human Capital, Aggregate Labor Productivity, Business Fluctuations, Cycles, Economics of the Elderly, Economics of the Handicapped, Non-Labor Market Discrimination, Time Allocation and Labor Supply, Labor Demand, Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
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