IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp18437.html

Online Buddies for Job Seekers: A Field Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • de Koning, Bart

    (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

  • Muller, Paul

    (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

  • Belot, Michèle

    (Cornell University)

  • Engels, Yvonne

    (UWV)

  • Fouarge, Didier

    (ROA, Maastricht University)

  • Keer, Mario

    (UWV)

  • Kircher, Philipp

    (Cornell University)

  • Phlippen, Sandra

    (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, ABN Amro)

Abstract

We design an online platform to connect unemployed job seekers with `buddies': former job seekers who recently found employment. We focus on job seekers who search in occupations with poor prospects and buddies who successfully switched occupations. In a randomized controlled trial, we evaluate the impact of access to the platform on labor market outcomes. We find sizable effects. Thirteen to 18 months after getting access, initially unemployed job seekers are 6 percentage points (11%) more likely to be employed and earn 226 Euro more per month than those without access. The positive impact is concentrated among the long-term unemployed.

Suggested Citation

  • de Koning, Bart & Muller, Paul & Belot, Michèle & Engels, Yvonne & Fouarge, Didier & Keer, Mario & Kircher, Philipp & Phlippen, Sandra, 2026. "Online Buddies for Job Seekers: A Field Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 18437, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18437
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp18437.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18437. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.