Job Matching, Social Network and Word-of-Mouth Communication

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Job Matching, Social Network and Word-of-Mouth Communication

Author Info

Calvó-Armengol, Antoni (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)
Zenou, Yves (University of Southampton, GAINS, CEPR and IZA Bonn)

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Abstract

Workers are embedded within a network of social relationships and can communicate through word-of-mouth. They can find a job either directly or through personal contacts. From this micro scenario, we derive an aggregate matching function that has the standard properties but fails to be homogeneous of degree one because of coordination failures between workers. We show that, when the network size increases, on average, the unemployed workers hear about more vacancies through their social network but, at the same time, it is more likely that multiple vacancies reach the same unemployed worker. Above a certain critical value, this job overcrowding becomes so important that job matches decrease with network size. We then establish existence and uniqueness of the labor market equilibrium and study its properties. In dense enough networks, the equilibrium unemployment rate increases with network size whereas the latter has an ambiguous effect on wages. Finally, we demonstrate that the decentralized market equilibrium is not efficient because of both search and network externalities.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 771.

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Length: 28 pages
Date of creation: May 2003
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp771

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Article
- Calvo-Armengol, Antoni & Zenou, Yves, 2005. "Job matching, social network and word-of-mouth communication," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 500-522, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Paper
- Calvó-Armengol, Antoni & Zenou, Yves, 2001. "Job Matching, Social Network and Word-of-Mouth Communication," Seminar Papers 695, Stockholm University, Institute for International Economic Studies. [Downloadable!]
- Calvó-Armengol, Antoni & Zenou, Yves, 2001. "Job Matching, Social Network and Word-of-Mouth Communication," CEPR Discussion Papers 2797, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search, Learning, and Information
J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

NEP-ALL-2003-05-29 (All new papers)
NEP-NET-2003-05-29 (Network Economics)
NEP-URE-2003-05-29 (Urban & Real Estate Economics)

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

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Other versions:
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Other versions:
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Other versions:
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Other versions:
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