Physical Disability and Labor Market Discrimination

Randomizing the mention of this sub- sidy in the cover letter allows to evaluate the effectiveness of one of the main programs of Québec’s National Strategy – known as the Job Integration Contract. [...] This program offers firms wage subsidies that can cover up to 85% of wages (depending on the severity of the disability), 50% of the costs to provide physical access to workplaces (wheelchair ramps, 2 automatic doors, etc.), and 100% of the costs to adapt the workspace of the disabled em- ployee (tables and disability related equipment). [...] The final part of the paper shows how differences in callback rates between applica- tions with and without the mention of a disability can be used to bound the proportion of discriminating firms in our sample. [...] This program offers firms wage subsidies that can cover at most 85% of wages (depending on the severity of the disability), 50% of the costs to provide physical access to workplaces (wheelchair ramps, automatic doors, etc.), and 100% of costs to adapt the workspace of the disabled employee (tables and disability related equipment). [...] The year the last diploma was awarded was randomly generated and all the other years mentioned in this section are determined accordingly as a function of the diplomas’ standard completion times.2 Employers can use these two pieces of information to infer the age of the candidate (It is very uncommon to state one’s age in a resume in Québec.) For example, consider a resume sent in 2016.