Stijn Baert
Biographic Data
| ID | 145759 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stijn Baert |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stijn |
| FAMILY NAME | Baert |
| SIGNATURE | BAERT S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ghent University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1660-5165 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 134 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Unemployment, inactivity, and hiring chances: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Policymakers’ push for higher employment rates has renewed attention to the labour market position of long-term unemployed jobseekers and inactive persons. However, stigma related to unemployment or inactivity can hinder their hiring chances when applying for a job. This systematic literature review investigates whether, when, and why periods of not working are penalized in hiring. Our review confirms employers treat the unemployed and inactive l…
Too Much of a Good Thing? Telework Intensity and Workplace Experiences
At a time when numerous organisations are urging a return to the office while many employees prefer to continue teleworking, it is crucial to ascertain the optimal level of telework intensity. In the present study, we determine this ideal level with respect to self‐rated employee attitudes, behaviour, well‐being, social relations and professional growth. Drawing on a five‐wave longitudinal dataset, we apply fixed effects regression analyses to in…
How Do Employers View Applicants With and Without Children
Objective This study investigates how parenthood influences employers' hiring decisions and the underlying signals that drive this discrimination. Background Prior research has consistently shown a motherhood penalty in hiring, whereas evidence on fatherhood remains less clear. Yet, most studies simplify parenthood into a binary distinction between parents and non‐parents, neglecting potential variations based on the number and age of children. M…
Time Tetris: A longitudinal study on compressed schedules and workplace well-being at Ikea
While workers in compressed schedules may mentally switch off from work more effectively, this does not translate into decreased burnout risk scores. Consistent with theoretical expectations, policymakers and employers should be cautious in assuming that the arrangements significantly reduce burnout
Sexual orientation stereotypes and job candidate screening: Why gay is (mostly) OK
To explain the conflicting findings on hiring discrimination against applicants in a same-sex marriage, we explore the perceptual drivers behind employers’ evaluations. Therefore, we conduct a vignette experiment among recruiters, for which we test systematically selected stereotypes from earlier studies. We find causal evidence for distinct effects of same-sex marriage on candidate perceptions and interview probabilities. In particular, intervie…
How do recruiters assess applicants who express a political engagement
Although unequal treatment of workers based on political affiliation is prohibited in many countries, it is conspicuously understudied in the discrimination literature. In this study, we set up a vignette experiment with genuine recruiters to provide more insight into the effect of political engagement in job applicants on the assessment of their resumes by these professionals. We find that, overall, recruiters view an applicant as less creative,…
A poisoned gift? The hireability signals of an income-support program for the senior unemployed
Many Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries invest heavily in labor-market programs to prolong careers. Although active labor-market programs have frequently been evaluated, less is known about passive programs supporting unemployed seniors financially. We focus on the latter by investigating the hiring opportunities of candidates who partake in a regime that ensures dismissed seniors a company supplement alongside regul…
Décrypter l'attrait du télétravail pour les salariés: Une expérience d'enquête factorielle
Cet article analyse l'attrait du télétravail par le biais d'une expérience d'enquête factorielle dans laquelle les salariés évaluent des offres d'emploi présentant des caractéristiques divergentes, incluant une large variation dans la possibilité de télétravailler. La relation entre la possibilité de télétravailler et l'attrait de l'emploi s'avère approximativement linéaire: 10 points de pourcentage supplémentaires d'heures de télétravail entraîn…
I won’t make the same mistake again: Burnout history and job preferences
Nothing really matters: Evaluating Demand-Side Moderators of Age Discrimination in Hiring
As age discrimination hampers the OECD's ambition to extend the working population, an efficient anti-discrimination policy targeted at the right employers is critical. Therefore, the context in which age discrimination is most prevalent must be identified. In this study, we thoroughly review the current theoretical arguments and empirical findings regarding moderators of age discrimination in different demand-side domains (i.e. decision-maker, v…
Vocational education, general education, and on-the-job learning over the life cycle
We investigate whether vocationally and generally educated individuals differ in their on-the-job learning and how this difference evolves over the career. To this end, we exploit the European Skills and Jobs Survey dataset and rely on instrumental variable estimation. While our descriptive results suggest that workers with a vocational degree experience on average more learning, this conclusion largely changes once endogeneity is taken into acco…
The state of hiring discrimination: A meta-analysis of (almost) all recent correspondence experiments
Beyond the Hype: (How) Are Work Regimes Associated with Job Burnout
Job burnout affects countless workers and constitutes a major issue in working life. Prevention strategies such as offering part-time options and shorter working weeks have been widely advocated to address this issue. However, the relationship between shorter work regimes and burnout risk has not yet been investigated across diverse working populations applying validated measures and frameworks for job burnout. Building on the most recent operati…
Why making promotion after a burnout is like boiling the ocean
Recent studies have explored hiring discrimination as an obstacle to former burnout patients. A substantial share of the burned-out working population, however, returns to the same employer, where they face an even more severe aftermath of burnout syndrome: promotion discrimination. To our knowledge, we are the first to directly address this issue. More specifically, we conducted a vignette experiment with 406 managers, testing the potential of t…
Is labour market discrimination against ethnic minorities better explained by taste or statistics? A systematic review of the empirical evidence
Work Hard or Play Hard? Degree Class, Student Leadership and Employment Opportunities
This study investigates the impact on first hiring outcomes of two main curriculum vitae (CV) characteristics by which graduates with a tertiary education degree distinguish themselves from their peers: degree class and extra‐curricular activities. These characteristics were randomly assigned to 2,800 fictitious job applications that were sent to real vacancies in Belgium. Academic performance and extra‐curricular engagement enhance job interview…
Student internships and employment opportunities after graduation: A field experiment
Internships during tertiary education have become substantially more common over the past decades in many industrialised countries. This study examines the impact of a voluntary intra-curricular internship experience during university studies on the probability of being invited to a job interview. To estimate a causal relationship, we conducted a randomised field experiment in which we sent 1,248 fictitious, but realistic, resumes to real job ope…
Secondary School Success in Times of Parental Divorce
Objective We investigated how educational performance during secondary education evolves in the years before, during, and after parental divorce. Background Theoretical models predict different divorce effect patterns in the school year of the divorce and in the years around it. However, we are not aware of any existing studies attempting to measure this pattern. Method The study was based on unique panel data capturing parental divorce and schoo…
Smartphone use and academic performance: A literature review
We present the first systematic review of the scientific literature on smartphone use and academic success. We synthesise the theoretical mechanisms, empirical approaches, and empirical findings described in the multidisciplinary literature to date. Our analysis of the literature reveals a predominance of empirical results supporting a negative association between students’ frequency of smartphone use and their academic success. However, the stre…
The impact of dual apprenticeship programmes on early labour market outcomes: A dynamic approach
What do student jobs on graduate CVs signal to employers
Student Access to Apprenticeships: Evidence from a Vignette Experiment
We identify the causal effects of student characteristics on the likelihood of being hired for an apprenticeship and explore the mechanisms underlying the employer’s decision. To this end, we perform a vignette experiment among human resources professionals in Belgium, focusing on less‐qualified youth. Our results indicate that students with favorable educational records and students revealing being motivated are more likely to obtain an apprenti…
As If it Weren't Hard Enough Already: Breaking Down Hiring Discrimination Following Burnout
Hiring discrimination towards (former) burnout patients has been extensively documented in the literature. To tackle this problem, it is important to understand the underlying mechanisms of such unequal hiring opportunities. Therefore, we conducted a vignette experiment with 425 genuine recruiters and jointly tested the potential stigma against job candidates with a history of burnout that were mentioned earlier in the literature. We found candid…
Younger, dissatisfied, and unhealthy – Relative age in adolescence
Smartphone Use and Academic Performance: First Evidence from Longitudinal Data
To study the causal impact of smartphone use on academic performance, we collected – for the first time worldwide – longitudinal data on students’ smartphone use and educational performance. For three consecutive years, we surveyed all students attending classes in 11 different study programmes at two Belgian universities on general smartphone use and other drivers of academic achievement. These survey data were merged with the exam scores of the…
Is There Less Discrimination in Occupations Where Recruitment Is Difficult
The authors empirically test the cross-sectional relationship between hiring discrimination and labor market tightness at the level of the occupation. To this end, they conduct a correspondence test in the youth labor market. In line with theoretical expectations, results show that, compared to natives, candidates with a foreign-sounding name are equally often invited to a job interview if they apply for occupations for which vacancies are diffic…
Do Employer Preferences Contribute to Sticky Floors
The authors investigate the importance of employer preferences in explaining sticky floors, the pattern in which women are less likely, as compared to men, to start to climb the job ladder. The authors perform a randomized field experiment in the Belgian labor market and test whether hiring discrimination based on gender is heterogeneous by whether jobs imply a promotion (compared to the applicants' current position). The findings show that women…
Why Are Employers Put Off by Long Spells of Unemployment
Recent evidence from large-scale field experiments has shown that employers use job candidates’ unemployment duration as a sorting criterion. In the present study, we investigate what underlies this pattern. To this end, we conduct a survey experiment in which employers make hiring decisions concerning fictitious job candidates who have experienced spells of unemployment of different length. In addition, candidates are rated on several statements…
First depressed, then discriminated against
Hiring a Gay Man, Taking a Risk: A Lab Experiment on Employment Discrimination and Risk Aversion
We investigate risk aversion as a driver of labor market discrimination against homosexual men. We show that more hiring discrimination by more risk-averse employers is consistent with taste-based and statistical discrimination. To test this hypothesis we conduct a scenario experiment in which experimental employers take a fictitious hiring decision concerning a heterosexual or homosexual male job candidate. In addition, participants are surveyed…
Facebook profile picture appearance affects recruiters’ first hiring decisions
We investigate whether the publicly available information on Facebook about job applicants affects employers’ hiring decisions. To this end, we conduct a field experiment in which fictitious job applications are sent to real job openings in Belgium. The only characteristic in which these candidates differ is the unique Facebook profile that can be found online with their name. Candidates with the most beneficial Facebook picture obtain approximat…
Does it pay to care? Volunteering and employment opportunities
Getting grey hairs in the labour market. An alternative experiment on age discrimination
Perceived discrimination In Primary Healthcare in Europe: Evidence from the cross-sectional Qualicopc study
Recent figures show that discrimination in healthcare is still persistent in the European Union. Research has confirmed these results but focused mainly on the outcomes of perceived discrimination. Studies that take into account socioeconomic determinants of discrimination limit themselves to either ethnicity, income or education. This article explores the influence of several socioeconomic indicators (e.g. gender, age, income, education and ethn…
Why making promotion after a burnout is like boiling the ocean
Recent studies have explored hiring discrimination as an obstacle to former burnout patients. A substantial share of the burned-out working population, however, returns to the same employer, where they face an even more severe aftermath of burnout syndrome: promotion discrimination. To our knowledge, we are the first to directly address this issue. More specifically, we conducted a vignette experiment with 406 managers, testing the potential of t…
Mister Sandman, bring me good marks! On the relationship between sleep quality and academic achievement
Sexual orientation stereotypes and job candidate screening: Why gay is (mostly) OK
To explain the conflicting findings on hiring discrimination against applicants in a same-sex marriage, we explore the perceptual drivers behind employers’ evaluations. Therefore, we conduct a vignette experiment among recruiters, for which we test systematically selected stereotypes from earlier studies. We find causal evidence for distinct effects of same-sex marriage on candidate perceptions and interview probabilities. In particular, intervie…
Smartphone Use and Academic Performance: First Evidence from Longitudinal Data
To study the causal impact of smartphone use on academic performance, we collected – for the first time worldwide – longitudinal data on students’ smartphone use and educational performance. For three consecutive years, we surveyed all students attending classes in 11 different study programmes at two Belgian universities on general smartphone use and other drivers of academic achievement. These survey data were merged with the exam scores of the…
Overeducation at the start of the career: Stepping stone or trap?
Mister Sandman, bring me good marks! On the relationship between sleep quality and academic achievement
Is There Less Discrimination in Occupations Where Recruitment Is Difficult
The authors empirically test the cross-sectional relationship between hiring discrimination and labor market tightness at the level of the occupation. To this end, they conduct a correspondence test in the youth labor market. In line with theoretical expectations, results show that, compared to natives, candidates with a foreign-sounding name are equally often invited to a job interview if they apply for occupations for which vacancies are diffic…
Getting grey hairs in the labour market. An alternative experiment on age discrimination
Perceived discrimination In Primary Healthcare in Europe: Evidence from the cross-sectional Qualicopc study
Recent figures show that discrimination in healthcare is still persistent in the European Union. Research has confirmed these results but focused mainly on the outcomes of perceived discrimination. Studies that take into account socioeconomic determinants of discrimination limit themselves to either ethnicity, income or education. This article explores the influence of several socioeconomic indicators (e.g. gender, age, income, education and ethn…
First depressed, then discriminated against
Do Employer Preferences Contribute to Sticky Floors
The authors investigate the importance of employer preferences in explaining sticky floors, the pattern in which women are less likely, as compared to men, to start to climb the job ladder. The authors perform a randomized field experiment in the Belgian labor market and test whether hiring discrimination based on gender is heterogeneous by whether jobs imply a promotion (compared to the applicants' current position). The findings show that women…
Facebook profile picture appearance affects recruiters’ first hiring decisions
We investigate whether the publicly available information on Facebook about job applicants affects employers’ hiring decisions. To this end, we conduct a field experiment in which fictitious job applications are sent to real job openings in Belgium. The only characteristic in which these candidates differ is the unique Facebook profile that can be found online with their name. Candidates with the most beneficial Facebook picture obtain approximat…
Does it pay to care? Volunteering and employment opportunities
Hiring Discrimination: An Overview of (Almost) All Correspondence Experiments Since 2005
Hiring a Gay Man, Taking a Risk: A Lab Experiment on Employment Discrimination and Risk Aversion
We investigate risk aversion as a driver of labor market discrimination against homosexual men. We show that more hiring discrimination by more risk-averse employers is consistent with taste-based and statistical discrimination. To test this hypothesis we conduct a scenario experiment in which experimental employers take a fictitious hiring decision concerning a heterosexual or homosexual male job candidate. In addition, participants are surveyed…
Why Are Employers Put Off by Long Spells of Unemployment
Recent evidence from large-scale field experiments has shown that employers use job candidates’ unemployment duration as a sorting criterion. In the present study, we investigate what underlies this pattern. To this end, we conduct a survey experiment in which employers make hiring decisions concerning fictitious job candidates who have experienced spells of unemployment of different length. In addition, candidates are rated on several statements…
Smartphone use and academic performance: A literature review
We present the first systematic review of the scientific literature on smartphone use and academic success. We synthesise the theoretical mechanisms, empirical approaches, and empirical findings described in the multidisciplinary literature to date. Our analysis of the literature reveals a predominance of empirical results supporting a negative association between students’ frequency of smartphone use and their academic success. However, the stre…
The impact of dual apprenticeship programmes on early labour market outcomes: A dynamic approach
What do student jobs on graduate CVs signal to employers
Student Access to Apprenticeships: Evidence from a Vignette Experiment
We identify the causal effects of student characteristics on the likelihood of being hired for an apprenticeship and explore the mechanisms underlying the employer’s decision. To this end, we perform a vignette experiment among human resources professionals in Belgium, focusing on less‐qualified youth. Our results indicate that students with favorable educational records and students revealing being motivated are more likely to obtain an apprenti…
As If it Weren't Hard Enough Already: Breaking Down Hiring Discrimination Following Burnout
Hiring discrimination towards (former) burnout patients has been extensively documented in the literature. To tackle this problem, it is important to understand the underlying mechanisms of such unequal hiring opportunities. Therefore, we conducted a vignette experiment with 425 genuine recruiters and jointly tested the potential stigma against job candidates with a history of burnout that were mentioned earlier in the literature. We found candid…
Younger, dissatisfied, and unhealthy – Relative age in adolescence
Smartphone Use and Academic Performance: First Evidence from Longitudinal Data
To study the causal impact of smartphone use on academic performance, we collected – for the first time worldwide – longitudinal data on students’ smartphone use and educational performance. For three consecutive years, we surveyed all students attending classes in 11 different study programmes at two Belgian universities on general smartphone use and other drivers of academic achievement. These survey data were merged with the exam scores of the…
Work Hard or Play Hard? Degree Class, Student Leadership and Employment Opportunities
This study investigates the impact on first hiring outcomes of two main curriculum vitae (CV) characteristics by which graduates with a tertiary education degree distinguish themselves from their peers: degree class and extra‐curricular activities. These characteristics were randomly assigned to 2,800 fictitious job applications that were sent to real vacancies in Belgium. Academic performance and extra‐curricular engagement enhance job interview…
Student internships and employment opportunities after graduation: A field experiment
Internships during tertiary education have become substantially more common over the past decades in many industrialised countries. This study examines the impact of a voluntary intra-curricular internship experience during university studies on the probability of being invited to a job interview. To estimate a causal relationship, we conducted a randomised field experiment in which we sent 1,248 fictitious, but realistic, resumes to real job ope…
Secondary School Success in Times of Parental Divorce
Objective We investigated how educational performance during secondary education evolves in the years before, during, and after parental divorce. Background Theoretical models predict different divorce effect patterns in the school year of the divorce and in the years around it. However, we are not aware of any existing studies attempting to measure this pattern. Method The study was based on unique panel data capturing parental divorce and schoo…
Is labour market discrimination against ethnic minorities better explained by taste or statistics? A systematic review of the empirical evidence
The state of hiring discrimination: A meta-analysis of (almost) all recent correspondence experiments
Beyond the Hype: (How) Are Work Regimes Associated with Job Burnout
Job burnout affects countless workers and constitutes a major issue in working life. Prevention strategies such as offering part-time options and shorter working weeks have been widely advocated to address this issue. However, the relationship between shorter work regimes and burnout risk has not yet been investigated across diverse working populations applying validated measures and frameworks for job burnout. Building on the most recent operati…
Psychology (31 works) · Economics (22 works) · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality (16 works) · Social Psychology (16 works) · Demographic economics (15 works) · Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research (13 works) · Labour economics (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Mathematics (10 works) · Social Psychology (10 works)