Do Low-Wage Employers Discriminate against Applicants with Long Commutes?: Evidence from a Correspondence Experiment

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Human Resources
Year: 2020
Volume: 55
Issue: 3

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

I use a correspondence study of the low-wage labor market in Washington, DC to test whether employers discriminate against applicants who live farther from the job location. Fictional résumés randomly assigned to addresses far from the job location receive 14 percent fewer callbacks than those with addresses in nearby but similarly affluent neighborhoods. Living five to six miles away from the job results in a penalty equal to that received by applicants with stereotypically black names. On the other hand, holding commute distance constant, I find no statistical evidence that employers respond to a neighborhood’s affluence.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:uwp:jhriss:v:55:y:2020:i:3:p:864-901
Journal Field
Labor
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-29