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Job Search and Hiring with Two-sided Limited Information about Workseekers’ Skills

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  • Eliana Carranza
  • Robert Garlick
  • Kate Orkin
  • Neil Rankin

Abstract

We present field experimental evidence that limited information about workseekers’ skills distorts both firm and workseeker behavior. Assessing workseekers’ skills, giving workseekers their assessment results, and helping them to credibly share the results with firms increases workseekers’ employment and earnings. It also aligns their beliefs and search strategies more closely with their skills. Giving assessment results only to workseekers has similar effects on beliefs and search, but smaller effects on employment and earnings. Giving assessment results only to firms increases callbacks. These patterns are consistent with two-sided information frictions, a new finding that can inform design of information-provision mechanisms.

Suggested Citation

  • Eliana Carranza & Robert Garlick & Kate Orkin & Neil Rankin, 2020. "Job Search and Hiring with Two-sided Limited Information about Workseekers’ Skills," CSAE Working Paper Series 2020-10, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    • Handle: RePEc:csa:wpaper:2020-10
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    Cited by:

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    5. Crepon,Bruno Jacques Jean Philippe & Premand,Patrick, 2018. "Creating new positions ? direct and indirect effects of a subsidized apprenticeship program," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8561, The World Bank.
    6. Vyborny, Kate & Garlick, Robert & Subramanian, Nivedhitha & Field, Erica, 2024. "Why Don't Jobseekers Search More? Barriers and Returns to Search on a Job Matching Platform," IZA Discussion Papers 17520, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Chakravorty, Bhaskar & Arulampalam, Wiji & Bhatiya, Apurav Yash & Imbert, Clément & Rathelot, Roland, 2024. "Can information about jobs improve the effectiveness of vocational training? Experimental evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    8. Girum Abebe & Stefano Caria & Marcel Fafchamps & Paolo Falco & Simon Franklin & Simon Quinn & Forhad Shilpi, 2023. "Matching Frictions and Distorted Beliefs:Evidence from a Job Fair Experiment," Working Papers 958, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements

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