软技能、竞争和雇佣歧视+

Soft Skills, Competition, and Hiring Discrimination Christian ValenciaSarah JanzenYashodhan GhorpadeAmanina Abdur Rahman Social Protection and Jobs Global PracticeApril 2024 Policy Research Working Paper10755 Abstract This paper conducts a correspondence study to assessdemand for soft skills in the context of hiring discriminationin Malaysia. No evidence of gender-based discrimination isfound, including in science, technology, engineering, andmathematics occupations. However, in line with previousstudies in the same context, there is evidence of ethnicdiscrimination. The paper then test the relevance of twosoft skills: leadership and teamwork. These tests find someevidence that the labor market rewards simple signals ofteamwork for the average applicant. Teamwork also playsan important role in the context of labor market discrimi-nation, reducing the discrimination gap by 40 percent. In contrast, signaling leadership skills has no effect. Last, thepaper considers the role of labor market competition. Com-panies facing competition in the labor market, measured bythe number of competitors advertising similar positions, are56 to 66 percent less likely to discriminate. On the supplyside, discrimination increases with the relative quality of thepool of applicants. The results provide novel evidence thatsoft skills and labor market competition both play import-ant roles in understanding hiring discrimination. Thisunderlines potential pathways to overcome labor marketdiscrimination and improve job matching. The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about developmentissues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry thenames of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely thoseof the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank andits affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. SoftSkills,Competition,andHiringDiscrimination∗ ChristianValencia,SarahJanzen,YashodhanGhorpade,†andAmaninaAbdurRahman JEL Codes:J01, J15, J16, J24 Keywords:Discrimination, Labor market, Soft skills, Competition 1Introduction Company owners and managers make two decisions with important implications in the labor market:what skills are demanded and who to hire. On the demanded skills, a driver of trends in employmentis the changing demand for soft skills (Heckman and Kautz (2012), Weidmann and Deming (2021)).However, we know relatively little about what kinds of soft skills employers value in modern entry-level jobs (Heller and Kessler, 2022).On the decision of who to hire, it is in the best interest ofcompanies to hire based on workers productivity.However, several studies have documented theexistence of labor market discrimination in a wide range of contexts (Bertrand and Duflo (2017),Neumark (2018)) and it remains unclear how discrimination operates throughout the hiring processand how the existent empirical evidence on discrimination is linked to economic theory (Bertrandand Duflo, 2017). We conducted a correspondence study in 2023 using a large online job platform to assess demandfor soft skills in the context of hiring discrimination in Malaysia. Malaysia is a particularly interestingsetting because it is an upper-middle-income economy, home to multiple ethnicities representinglarge shares of the population, and previously documented gender gaps in labor force participationand wages.By randomly assigning similar fictitious applicants to advertised entry level jobs, wemeasure the extent of ethnicity-based (Malay/ Chinese/ Indian) and gender-based (male/female)discrimination in the Malaysian labor market. We also test whether employers respond to signalsof two soft skills: teamwork and leadership, both randomly assigned to applications and resumesthrough the presence of statements that signal each skill (e.g.demonstrated ability to contributeto teams).Our primary contribution lies in testing how labor market competition and soft skillsinteract with ethnicity and gender to narrow or widen the discrimination gap. We find evidence of ethnicity-based, but not gender-based, discrimination in Malaysia.Rela-tive to individuals with Chinese-sounding names, companies in Malaysia are 13 percentage pointsless likely to contact candidates with Malay-sounding names, and 15 percentage points less likelyto contact candidates with Indian-sounding names.These findings are persistent at all stages ofthe hiring process.Discrimination is more likely to occur in large companies, jobs that offer highwages, and companies that have lower average processing times. We present weak evidence that the labor market rewards simple signals of teamwork fo