Age Discrimination across the Business Cycle
利用EEOC微观数据和招聘对应研究，发现经济衰退期间年龄歧视加剧：失业率每上升1个百分点，与年龄相关的解雇和招聘投诉分别增加3.3%和1.6%，老年女性相对于年轻女性的回电率下降15%。
We test whether age discrimination rises during recessions using two complementary analyses. Confidential EEOC microdata reveal that age-related firing and hiring charges rise by 3.3 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively, for each percentage point increase in a state-industry’s monthly unemployment. Though the opportunity cost of filing falls, the fraction of meritorious claims increases—a sufficient condition for rising discrimination under plausible assumptions. Second, we repurpose data from hiring correspondence studies conducted across different cities and time periods during the recovery from the Great Recession. Each percentage point increase in local unemployment reduces the callback rate for older versus younger women by 15 percent.