Age Discrimination, an Audit Study: 2002-2003 in Boston, Massachusetts, and St. Petersburg, Florida (ICPSR 23980)

Version Date: Feb 23, 2011

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Principal Investigator(s):
Joanna Lahey, Texas A and M University; Dora L. Costa, University of California-Los Angeles

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23980.v1

Version V1

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Summary

As baby boomers reach retirement age, demographic pressures on public programs may cause policy makers to cut benefits and encourage employment at later ages. But how much demand exists for older workers? This study focuses on a field experiment to determine hiring conditions for women ages 35 to 62 in entry-level or close to entry-level jobs in Boston, Massachusetts and St. Petersburg, Florida. Pairs of computer-randomized resumes were sent to employers in these two cities. Response rates were measured by age, as indicated on each resume by date of high school graduation. Applicants' working history, job choice, certifications, volunteer experience as well as their education and age have been evaluated in this study. Other questions focused on job advertisement and interviewing process.

Citation

Lahey, Joanna, and Costa, Dora L. Age Discrimination, an Audit Study:  2002-2003 in Boston, Massachusetts, and St. Petersburg, Florida. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2011-02-23. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23980.v1

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Funding

National Science Foundation (2387480), United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Aging (T32-AG00186)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

state

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2002-02 -- 2003-02

Date of Collection

2002-02 -- 2003-02

Data Collection Notes

  1. For contextual information about the variables in the data collection, please see: Lahey, Joanna N. "Age, Women, and Hiring: An Experimental Study." Journal of Human Resources 43.1 (2008): 30-56.

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Sample

For sampling information, please see: Lahey, Joanna N. "Age, Women, and Hiring: An Experimental Study." Journal of Human Resources 43.1 (2008): 30-56.

Universe

Firms in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, and St. Petersburg, Florida, areas that advertised for entry-level employment positions between February 2002 and February 2003.

Unit(s) of Observation

firms

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Response Rates

Massachusetts: 10.3 percent any response, Florida: 11.67 percent any response

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Original Release Date

2011-02-23

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Lahey, Joanna, and Dora L. Costa. Age Discrimination, an Audit Study: 2002-2003 in Boston, Massachusetts, and St. Petersburg, Florida. ICPSR23980-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2011-02-23. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23980.v1

2011-02-23 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.
  • Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Weight

none

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Notes