Physical Disability and Labor Market Discrimination: Evidence from a Video Résumé Field Experiment

Abstract

We sent fictitious applications to firms advertising job openings. We find that revealing a disability decreases callback rates by 25 percentage points. This result is not explained by accessibility constraints or lower productivity due to disability. We find that including a video résumé of a well-spoken applicant significantly increases callbacks by 10 percentage points for persons with and without disabilities, suggesting that discrimination is unaffected by quality signals in our context. Analysis of viewing activity suggests that employers seek less information when the applicant is disabled. Disclosing the disability later in the video increases employers' viewing time but leaves callback rates unchanged. (JEL C93, J14, J23, J24, J71, K31, M51)