Jobseekers face multiple barriers with potentially different implications for the level of search and returns to increasing search. An experiment on a job search platform in Pakistan shows that lowering users’ psychological cost of initiating job applications increases applications by 600%. Returns to the marginal applications induced by treatment are approximately constant rather than decreasing,
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Jobseekers face multiple barriers with potentially different implications for the level of search and returns to increasing search. An experiment on a job search platform in Pakistan shows that lowering users’ psychological cost of initiating job applications increases applications by 600%. Returns to the marginal applications induced by treatment are approximately constant rather than decreasing, in contrast with intuitive job search models. This pattern is consistent with a model in which heterogeneous psychological costs of initiating applications, potentially due to heterogeneous present bias, lead some jobseekers to miss applying to even high-return vacancies. Additional experiments and measurement reject alternative behavioral and non-behavioral explanations. Our finding of constant returns to marginal search effort, combined with limited spillovers onto other jobseekers, raises the possibility of suboptimally low search effort due to psychological costs of initiating applications.
That is from a new paper by Erica Field, Robert Garlick, Nivedhitha Subramanian, Kate Vyborny. Via Maxwell G.
The post Small steps toward a much better world, job search edition appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
Economics, Uncategorized