Amanda Agan1, Sonja B. Starr2
1Rutgers University, 75 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 (e-mail: )
2University of Michigan, 625 S. State Street, South Hall 3230, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (e-mail: )
Tóm tắt
This paper adds to the empirical evidence that criminal records are a barrier to employment. Using data from 2,655 online applications sent on behalf of fictitious male applicants, we show that employers are 60 percent more likely to call applicants that do not have a felony conviction. We further investigate whether this effect varies based on applicant race (black versus white), crime type (drug versus property crime), industry (restaurants versus retail), jurisdiction (New Jersey versus New York City), local crime rate, and local racial composition. Although magnitudes vary somewhat, in every subsample the conviction effect is large, significant, and negative.
