December 2006

IZA DP No. 2522: An Experimental Investigation of Age Discrimination in the French Labour Market

In a field experiment of age discrimination, pairs of men aged twenty-seven and forty-seven, inquired, by email, about employment as waiters in twenty four French towns. The rate of net discrimination found against the older French waiter, corresponds to the highest rates ever recorded anywhere, by written tests, for racial discrimination. Discrimination was higher in Paris than in the rest of France.