This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
  4. Forthcoming Articles
  5. How Do You Say Your Name? Difficult-To-Pronounce Names and Labor Market Outcomes

American Economic Journal:
Economic Policy

ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)

How Do You Say Your Name? Difficult-To-Pronounce Names and Labor Market Outcomes

  • Qi Ge
  • Stephen Wu
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (Forthcoming)

Abstract

We test for labor market discrimination based on an understudied characteristic: name fluency. Analysis of recent economics PhD job candidates indicates that name difficulty is negatively related to the probability of landing an academic or tenure track position and research productivity of initial institutional placement. Discrimination due to name fluency is also found using experimental data from prior audit studies. Within samples of African-Americans (Bertrand and Mullainathan, 2004) and ethnic immigrants (Oreopoulos, 2011), job applicants with less fluent names experience lower callback rates, and name complexity explains roughly between 10 and 50 percent of ethnic name penalties. The results are primarily driven by candidates with weaker resumes, suggesting that cognitive biases may contribute to the penalty of having a difficult-to-pronounce name.

Downloads