In this hybrid research seminar on Tuesday February 10, 2026 at 12:00 pm by Professor Jaime Millan-Quijano— will present his research titled "Reducing Racial Bias in Hiring: A Field Experiment with Colombian Firms ".
Abstract:
In this paper, we examine whether providing firms with information about their implicit bias against Afro-descendants can help reduce racial disparities in hiring. We invited 788 firms that use Colombia’s public employment services to complete a Race Implicit Association Test (IAT) and randomly disclosed the test results to half of them. Using data on real job seekers, real job vacancies, and actual hiring decisions, we assess whether receiving information about implicit bias affects the hiring prospects of Afro-descendant applicants. We find that four months after the intervention, treated firms are 39% more likely to fill a vacancy with an Afro-descendant candidate, and the probability that a treated firm hires at least one Afro-descendant worker increases by 36%.
The zoom link to join the seminar online can be found here. This event is open to the public. All who are interested to this topic are very welcome to join the seminar. After the presentation there will be time for questions and discussion.
For any queries related to our UNU-MERIT Seminar Series, please contact Lizeth Melissa Molina Alvarez and Karthika Baby Sujatha by sending an email to seminars@merit.unu.edu.