Title
Labor market discrimination in Lima, Peru: Evidence from a field experiment
Date Issued
01 June 2014
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Publisher(s)
Elsevier B.V.
Abstract
We analyze labor discrimination in Peru, a fast-growing country where much anecdotal evidence suggests the presence of discriminatory practices in everyday life. Using surnames (indigenous/white) as a proxy for race, we sent 4820 fictitious CVs in response to 1205 real job vacancies for professional, technical, and unskilled jobs in Lima. Overall, whites receive more callbacks than indigenous applicants, and beautiful applicants receive more callbacks than homely-looking ones. The magnitude and significance of the racial and beauty gaps in callbacks substantially vary by job category. In particular, better looks only seem to matter in getting more callbacks for professional jobs. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.
Start page
83
End page
94
Volume
58
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Temas sociales
Etnología
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84893823228
Source
World Development
ISSN of the container
0305750X
Sponsor(s)
We thank Roberto Asmat, José Bacigalupo, José Andrée Camarena, Lajos Kossuth, Alexandra Málaga and André Miranda for their valuable research assistance. We are grateful to Liuba Kogan for her advice and assistance during several stages of the research, and to seminar participants at the 2012 International Economic Science Association (ESA) Conference, the 2012 Latin America and the Caribbean Economics Association (LACEA) Annual Meeting, the 4th Bolivian Conference on Development Economics, and the Viernes CIUP at the Universidad del Pacífico. Two anonymous referees provided useful comments. The financial support from the Ford Foundation and the Universidad del Pacífico (through the Premio de Investigación Interdisciplinaria 2011) is also gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed in the paper are those of the authors only.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus