Does hiring discrimination contribute to unequal access to high-analytical and social-reasoning task bundles?

Determine whether hiring discrimination contributes to unequal access to occupational task bundles characterized by advanced analytical and social-reasoning (interpersonal) tasks in the U.S. labor market.

Background

The paper highlights persistent demographic disparities in the allocation of occupational tasks in the United States, especially in advanced analytical and social-reasoning tasks that have grown in economic importance. These task allocation differences are linked to earnings disparities across demographic groups.

The authors note that it remains unresolved in the literature whether hiring discrimination plays a role in generating unequal access to these high-return task bundles. This motivates their large-scale résumé audit and theoretical framework linking discrimination to evaluative discretion.