Referrals are prevalent in the U.S. labor market. To understand their aggregate effects, this paper studies an equilibrium model of on-the-job search and job referrals. In the model, referrals are ...modeled as a strategic interaction between a referrer and a firm. The equilibrium model shows that referrals benefit job searchers whose outside option is above a threshold. I support this prediction by showing that the referral wage premium exists only for employed job searchers. Quantitatively, referrals contribute to the total output by 3.93% through transmitting information and reducing search costs. The information transmission explains about 28% of the effects.
We study the effect of disclosing information on peers' salaries on workers' job satisfaction and job search intentions. A randomly chosen subset of University of California employees was informed ...about a new website listing the pay of University employees. All employees were then surveyed about their job satisfaction and job search intentions. Workers with salaries below the median for their pay unit and occupation report lower pay and job satisfaction and a significant increase in the likelihood of looking for a new job. Above-median earners are unaffected. Differences in pay rank matter more than differences in pay levels. (JEL I23, J28, J31, J64)
This paper models the optimal search strategies of the unemployed across space to characterize local labor markets. Our methodology allows for linkages between numerous areas, while preserving ...tractability. We estimate that labor markets are quite local, as the attractiveness of jobs to applicants sharply decays with distance. Also, workers are discouraged from searching in areas with strong competition from other job-seekers. However, as labor markets overlap, a local stimulus or transport improvements have modest effects on local outcomes, because ripple effects in job applications dilute their impact across a series of overlapping markets.
LOCUS OF CONTROL AND JOB SEARCH STRATEGIES Caliendo, Marco; Cobb-Clark, Deborah A.; Uhlendorff, Arne
The review of economics and statistics,
03/2015, Letnik:
97, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Standard job search theory assumes that unemployed individuals have perfect information about the effect of their search effort on the job offer arrival rate. We present an alternative model that ...assumes that each individual has a subjective belief about the impact of her search effort on the job arrival. These beliefs depend in part on an individual's locus of control. We estimate the impact of locus of control on job search behavior using a data set of newly unemployed individuals in Germany. Consistent with our theoretical predictions, we find evidence that individuals with an internal locus of control search more and that individuals who believe that their future outcomes are determined by external factors have lower reservation wages.
This review describes advances over the past decade in what is known about the individual experience of unemployment, predictors of reemployment, and interventions to speed employment. Research on ...the impact of unemployment has increased in sophistication, strengthening the causal conclusion that unemployment leads to declines in psychological and physical health and an increased incidence of suicide. This work has elucidated the risk factors and mechanisms associated with experiencing poor psychological health during unemployment; less so for physical health and suicide. Psychologists have begun to contribute to the study of factors associated with reemployment speed and quality. The past decade has especially illuminated the role of social networks and job search intensity in facilitating reemployment. Evidence suggests some individuals, especially members of minority groups, may face discrimination during their job search. Although more work in this arena is needed, several intervention-based programs have been shown to help individuals get back to work sooner.
We present 2 studies testing the recently developed social-cognitive model of career self-management (Lent & Brown, 2013) in the context of the job search process. In the first study, a sample of 243 ...unemployed job seekers completed measures of job search self-efficacy, outcome expectations, social support, search intentions, conscientiousness, and perceived control (or volition) over the outcomes of the job search. The latter variable was added to the social-cognitive model to examine the possibility, derived from the psychology of working perspective, that perceived volition might moderate the relation of self-efficacy to job search intentions. The second study included 240 graduating college seniors and focused on the utility of the social-cognitive, personality, and perceived outcome control variables in predicting active engagement in the job search process. Path analyses indicated that the model generally fit the data well in both studies. In Study 1, self-efficacy and outcome expectations mediated the relations of the other predictors to job search intentions. In Study 2, job search intentions produced the primary direct path to subsequent job search behaviors; conscientiousness, support, and outcome control related to job search behavior indirectly through self-efficacy and its linkage to intentions. Outcome control moderated self-efficacy/intention relations only in Study 2, and the pattern of moderation was contrary to expectations. Implications for further inquiry and practice with job seekers are discussed.
We investigate factors affecting the job search channels (newspapers, agency, informal network, direct contact, internet) of unemployed individuals in Italy using a multivariate probit model. We ...separately analyse unemployed individuals who lost their job or who are entering the labour market for the first time (i.e., with or without previous job experience, respectively). We use cross-sectional microdata covering the 2014–2018 period. We do not find important differences in the determinants in common between unemployed individuals with and without previous job experience (such as, age, education, and citizenship). The main difference between the two samples is in the composition, with more young people in the latter group (mainly individuals in the school-to-work transition) than in the first one. We find that better-educated unemployed people have more of a multichannel attitude when searching for jobs than their counterparts. Moreover, for unemployed individuals with previous job experience, the characteristics of their last job play a crucial role in influencing the choice of search channel(s). For example, unemployed individuals from high-skilled professions (that typically require the employment of better-educated individuals) choose the internet with a higher probability than other channels, while those from low-skilled professions and with experience in manufacturing have a higher probability of considering employment agencies than those in qualified professions in commercial activities and services. We have assumed that the unobservable factors affecting the decision process of a multichannel job search (estimated through the pairwise correlation coefficients across the residuals of the models) are represented by personality features of an individual, such as motivation, self-control, and preferences. A strong, positive, and significant correlation is found between job searching through the internet and direct contact with firms, but with some spatial differences between macro-areas of the country.
Using National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) data for 2005–8, we find that unemployed persons who look for work online are re-employed about 25% faster than comparable workers who do not ...search online. This finding contrasts with previous results for 1998–2001, and is robust to controls for cognitive test scores and detailed indicators of Internet access. Internet job search (IJS) appears to be most effective in reducing unemployment durations when used to contact friends and relatives, to send out resumes or fill out applications and also to look at advertisements. We detect a weak positive relationship between IJS and wage growth between jobs.
We use novel data from a leading online job search platform to examine the impact of corporate distress on firms' ability to attract job applicants. Survey responses suggest that job seekers ...accurately perceive firms' financial condition, as measured by companies' credit default swap prices and accounting data. Analyzing responses to job postings by major financial firms during the Great Recession, we find that an increase in an employer's distress results in fewer and lower quality applicants. These effects are particularly evident when the social safety net provides workers with weak protection against unemployment and for positions requiring a college education.
On-the-job search is increasingly recognized as an important potential driver of labor market dynamics over the business cycle. Using the UK Labor Force Survey, we find robust empirical evidence that ...on-the-job search is countercyclical and that the cyclical fluctuations have important repercussions for labor market dynamics. We also find that the cyclical pattern is not explained by precautionary search motives but rather appears to be driven by job-ladder-motivated searches. This finding is surprising because, as we confirm, the expected returns to on-the-job search are procyclical. We find evidence that three features of search behavior may contribute to this finding: greater search effort in response to lower job-to-job transition probabilities, a prevalence of non-pecuniary motivated searches that are less affected by lower expected wage gains, and procyclicality in average match quality, which has a significant impact on the search behavior of new hires over the business cycle.
PDF
