Hiring Discrimination in the Organisational Context: Data from a Cross-Nationally Harmonised Factorial Survey Experiment

Discrimination in hiring has been documented in numerous studies. It is not driven solely by individual actions but is context-dependent and moderated—among other factors—by organisational features that enable or constrain discriminatory behaviour. However, little is known about why some organisations, such as companies or public agencies, discriminate more than others. This data descriptor presents the dataset from a harmonised factorial survey experiment (FSE) on hiring discrimination which enables detailed analyses of discriminatory behaviour and the organisational contexts that shape it. The FSE measures discrimination with respect to nationality, gender, and care obligations and was conducted between 2024 and 2025 in four European countries—Germany, Norway, Poland, and Romania—among 2,506 recruiters. The dataset includes 15,036 evaluations of fictitious job candidates for medium-skilled positions, complemented by extensive information on recruiters and the organisations they represent.