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Do You Need a Job to Find a Job?

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  • Deborah Cobb-Clark
  • Paul Frijters
  • Guyonne Kalb

Abstract

This paper investigates whether job offers arrive more frequently for those in employment than for those in unemployment. To this end, we take advantage of a unique Australian data set which contains information on both accepted and rejected job offers. Our estimation strategy takes account of the selectivity associated with the initial employment state and we allow for individual heterogeneity in the probability of obtaining jobs. Our results reveal that, across the wage range, individuals are about equally likely to obtain a job offer in employment as in unemployment. This implies that encouraging unemployed (rather than employed) search through the provision of unemployment benefits does not improve the speed of a job match.

Suggested Citation

  • Deborah Cobb-Clark & Paul Frijters & Guyonne Kalb, 2005. "Do You Need a Job to Find a Job?," CEPR Discussion Papers 497, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    • Handle: RePEc:auu:dpaper:497
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    File URL: https://www.cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/CEPR/DP497.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    job-offer arrival rates; reservation wages; wage-offer distribution; directed search;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C41 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Duration Analysis; Optimal Timing Strategies
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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