Can job competition prevent hold-ups?

We consider an economy in which firms need to invest in capital before they can advertise a job, while applicants may have to compete for jobs. Our aim to investigate how this competition affects the investment decisions of firms. Our first finding shows that the economy always generates the right number of jobs. However, with random search firms under-invest in capital. In contrast, if workers can direct their search towards firms with different capital levels, the equilibrium is efficient. This result contrasts sharply with the predictions of models with ex post wage bargaining that never yield an efficien allocation. Moreover, our results extend the efficiency of auction mechanisms to an environment with non-contractible investments.