Document Type

Honors Paper

Advisor

Purba Mukerji

Publication Date

2023

Abstract

This paper investigates the labor market discrimination faced by job applicants from Afghanistan and Ukraine, using a correspondence test. Specifically, we examine the impact of nationality, gender, skill, and industry on positive responses from potential employers in Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden using a linear probability model. We used popular names in Afghanistan and Ukraine to create resumes that implied particular nationalities and included previous job experience in Kabul and Kyiv. Although the sample size of positive responses in Sweden and Iceland was too small to draw conclusions, employers in Denmark responded to 28 percent of the applications. For a Ukrainian, the odds of receiving a positive response were 24.98 times as large as the odds for an Afghan receiving a positive response, a uniform gap across three tertiary-level industries. Furthermore, Afghan and Ukrainian females were more likely to receive a positive callback than their male counterparts, with a 33.4 percent and 11.2 percent advantage, respectively. These results suggest that labor market discrimination based on nationality and gender is prevalent in Denmark.

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The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.