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Peter A Riach, Judith Rich

Cited by*: 16 Downloads*: 52

Sexual discrimination in invitation to job interview was tested by a controlled experimental method of send ing carefully-matched pairs of letters in response to newspaper adver tisements-one from a female and one from a male applicant. On 363 of the occasions, when invitations were issued, the applicants were trea ted equally, but there were 144 occasions of differential treatment. Females encountered discrimination 40 percent more frequently than ma les. Discrimination against females was statistically significant for the data in aggregate and for two of the seven occupations involved- gardener and computer analyst-programmer.

Peter A Riach, Judith Rich

Cited by*: 15 Downloads*: 42

Racial discrimination in selection for job interview was measured directly by the experimental technique of "corresponding testing." Carefully-matched pairs of written job applications were sent in response to advertised vacancies in Victoria--a state of Australia. One letter was from an applicant with an Anglo-Celtic name and the other was from an applicant with a Greek or Vietnamese name. Statistically significant discrimination was found against both Vietnamese-named and Greek-named applicants. There was no relationship between the incidence of discrimination and the competitive structure of the employer's product market.

Peter A Riach, Judith Rich

Cited by*: 136 Downloads*: 37

Controlled experiments, using matched pairs of bogus transactors, to test for discrimination in the marketplace have been conducted for over 30 years, and have extended across 10 countries. Significant, persistent and pervasive levels of discrimination have been found against non-whites and women in labour, housing and product markets. Rates of employment discrimination against non-whites, in excess of 25% have been measured in Australia, Europe and North America. A small number of experiments have also investigated employment discrimination against the disabled in Britain and the Netherlands, and against older applicants in the United States.

Peter A Riach, Judith Rich

Cited by*: 21 Downloads*: 27

Pairs of carefully-matched, written applications were made to advertised job vacancies in England to test for sexual discrimination in hiring. Two standard resumes were constructed for each occupation to control for all relevant supply-side variables, such as qualifications, experience and age. Consequently any differential response recorded can be attributed to demand-side discrimination. Statistically significant discrimination against men was found in the `female occupation' - secretary, and against women in the `male occupation' - engineer. Statistically significant, and unprecedented, discrimination against men was found in two `mixed occupations' - trainee chartered accountant and computer analyst programmer.