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Public Employment Agencies and Unemployment Spells: Reconciling the Experimental and Nonexperimental Evidence

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  • Jonathan M. Thomas

Abstract

Econometric evidence strongly suggests that unemployed job-seekers who use the services of a Public Employment Agency (PEA) have longer unemployment spells than those choosing alternative search methods. Yet, in some well-designed U.S. experiments, increased use of PEA services has been associated with faster transitions into jobs. The author argues that the nonexperimental studies may be biased toward finding a positive relationship between unemployment spell duration and PEA use because they ignore the possibility that PEAs are chosen by many job-seekers only after other search methods have been tried unsuccessfully and a period of unemployment has elapsed. An analysis of U.K. survey data with information on the timing of PEA use in 1987–88 supports that hypothesis.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan M. Thomas, 1997. "Public Employment Agencies and Unemployment Spells: Reconciling the Experimental and Nonexperimental Evidence," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 50(4), pages 667-683, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:50:y:1997:i:4:p:667-683
    DOI: 10.1177/001979399705000407
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    1. Rebecca M. Blank & David E. Card, 1991. "Recent Trends in Insured and Uninsured Unemployment: Is There an Explanation?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(4), pages 1157-1189.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Ana Dammert & Jose Galdo & Virgilio Galdo, 2015. "Integrating mobile phone technologies into labor-market intermediation: a multi-treatment experimental design," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-27, December.
    3. Henna Nivalainen, 2014. "Internet-Based Employer Search and Vacancy Duration: Evidence from Finland," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 28(1), pages 112-140, March.
    4. Linda Loury, 2006. "Job Search Among Informal Contacts," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0604, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    5. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 1999. "The Art of Labormetrics," NBER Working Papers 6927, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Elena Obukhova & George Lan, 2013. "Do Job Seekers Benefit from Contacts? A Direct Test with Contemporaneous Searches," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(10), pages 2204-2216, October.
    7. Emanuela Ghignoni, 2017. "Who do you know or what do you know? Informal recruitment channels, family background and university enrolments," Working Papers in Public Economics 179, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of Economics and Law.
    8. Smith, Sandra Susan & Broege, Nora C. R., 2012. "Searching For Work with a Criminal Record," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt7d56c799, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    9. Marie T. Mora & Alberto Dávila & James Boudreau, 2016. "Social networks and Black–White differentials in public employment agency usage among mature job seekers," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 56(2), pages 433-448, March.
    10. Linda Datcher Loury, 2006. "Some Contacts Are More Equal than Others: Informal Networks, Job Tenure, and Wages," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(2), pages 299-318, April.

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