This paper explores the consequences of age discrimination in the workplace by analyzing self-reports of discrimination in the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men, for the period 1966-80. Workers with positive reports were much more likely to separate from their employer and less likely to remain employed than workers who report no employer-related age discrimination. The findings for job separations, but not employment status, are robust to numerous attempts to correct the estimates for the inherent limitations of self-reported data, particularly heterogeneity in the propensity to report discrimination, the influence of mandatory retirement, and the possibility that other negative labor market outcomes are attributed to discrimination.

Richard W. Johnson is assistant research professor at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research, Rutgers University. David Neumark is professor of economics at Michigan State University, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Johnson received support from a National Institute on Aging postdoctoral fellowship (grant 5-T32-HD07329-06), and Neumark received financial support from NSF grant 5ES92-09575 and NIA grant K01-AG00589. We thank Richard Burkhauser, Alan Gustman, and anonymnoas referees for helpful comments. The views expressed are our own. The data and programs used in this article can be obtained beginning May 1998 through April 2001 from Richard Johnson, Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research, Rutgers University, 30 College Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08903.