Political discrimination in the workplace is large in magnitude, and impacts hiring, pay and promotion
Read “Politics at Work” by Emanuele Colonnelli, Valdemar Pinho Neto & Edoardo Teso here.
The extent to which political polarisation leads individuals to discriminate based on political leaning, and whether this spills over into the labour market, has so far eluded economists. In this VoxDevTalk, Edoardo Teso joins us to discuss his work with Emanuele Colonnelli and Valdemar Pinho Neto investigating how individuals’ political views shape firm behaviour and labor market outcomes in Brazil. In fact, the matching of business owners and workers based on political affiliation is larger than that based on gender or race, with experimental evidence also showing that business owners have a direct preference for copartisan workers. Atop this, copartisan workers are paid more, and are promoted more quickly despite being less qualified, highlighting the real consequences of this form of discrimination.