Economic Determinants of Applicant Screening Practices: Analysis of the Korean Human Capital Corporate Panel

Abstract

This study reviews employers’ existing recruiting practices and the environment in which these aredeployed, and estimates their effect on the employers’ and workers’ outcomes. The Korean Human Capital Corporate Panel spanning years 2005–2013 is used totake stock ofemployers’ screening of applicants’ personal characteristics, and regressions with fixed effects link the screening practicesto firms’ skill needs, skill supply and labor-market constraints. Institutional and market constraints on employers’ conduct are found to affect screening practices morethan firms’skill needs. The existence of HR departments, worker unionization, and applicant pool size have systematiceffects.Employers’ skill needsand screening practices, in turn, affectthe female share amongnewhires. HR departments, personnel committees on boards,andforeign management put a constraint onfirms’hiring discrimination, effectively supportingwomen’s cause.