Publications
Publications
- 2021
- HBS Working Paper Series
Increasing the Demand for Workers with a Criminal Record
By: Zoë B. Cullen, Will Dobbie and Mitchell Hoffman
Abstract
State and local policies increasingly restrict employers’ access to criminal records, but without
addressing the underlying reasons that employers may conduct criminal background checks.
Employers may thus still want to ask about a job applicant’s criminal record later in the hiring
process or make inaccurate judgments based on an applicant’s demographic characteristics. In
this paper, we use a field experiment conducted in partnership with a nationwide staffing platform
to test policies that more directly address the reasons that employers may conduct criminal
background checks. The experiment asked hiring managers at nearly a thousand U.S. businesses
to make incentive-compatible decisions under different randomized conditions. We find that 39%
of businesses in our sample are willing to work with individuals with a criminal record at
baseline, which rises to over 50% when businesses are offered crime and safety insurance, a
single performance review, or a limited background check covering just the past year. Wage
subsidies can achieve similar increases but at substantially higher cost. Based on our findings, the
staffing platform relaxed the criminal background check requirement and offered crime and
safety insurance to interested businesses.
Keywords
Citation
Cullen, Zoë B., Will Dobbie, and Mitchell Hoffman. "Increasing the Demand for Workers with a Criminal Record." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-023, September 2021. (Revise and Resubmit at The Quarterly Journal of Economics.)
Supplemental Information
Online Appendix