Working Paper: NBER ID: w19216
Authors: David Neumark; Patrick Button
Abstract: We examine whether stronger age discrimination laws at the state level moderated the impact of the Great Recession on older workers. We use a difference-in-difference-in-differences strategy to compare older workers in states with stronger and weaker laws, to their younger counterparts, both before, during, and after the Great Recession. We find very little evidence that stronger age discrimination protections helped older workers weather the Great Recession, relative to younger workers. The evidence sometimes points in the opposite direction, with stronger state age discrimination protections associated with more adverse effects of the Great Recession on older workers. We suggest that this may be because during an experience like the Great Recession, severe labor market disruptions make it difficult to discern discrimination, weakening the effects of stronger state age discrimination protections, or because higher termination costs associated with stronger age discrimination protections do more to deter hiring when future product and labor demand is highly uncertain.
Keywords: age discrimination; Great Recession; older workers; labor market; employment
JEL Codes: J14; J26; J71; J78
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Stronger state age discrimination protections (J78) | Higher unemployment rates for older men (J79) |
| Stronger state age discrimination protections (J78) | Longer unemployment durations for older men (J65) |
| Stronger state age discrimination protections (J78) | Larger relative declines in employment-to-population ratios for older women (J21) |
| Stronger state age discrimination protections (J78) | Decline in hiring rates for older women (J21) |
| Larger damages allowed under age discrimination laws (J71) | Smaller increases in unemployment durations for older women (J79) |
| Stronger state age discrimination protections (J78) | More negative consequences for older workers (J79) |