The Direct and Indirect Effects of Online Job Search Advice

Steffen Altmann, Anita Marie Glenny (), Robert Mahlstedt () and Alexander Sebald ()
Additional contact information
Anita Marie Glenny: Aarhus University
Robert Mahlstedt: University of Copenhagen
Alexander Sebald: Copenhagen Business School

No 15830, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study how online job search advice affects the job search strategies and labor market outcomes of unemployed workers. In a large-scale field experiment, we provide job seekers with vacancy information and occupational recommendations through an online dashboard. A clustered randomization procedure with regionally varying treatment intensities allows us to account for treatment spillovers. Our results show that online advice is highly effective when the share of treated workers is relatively low: in regions where less than 50% of job seekers are exposed to the treatment, working hours and earnings of treated job seekers increase by 8.5–9.5% in the year after the intervention. At the same time, we find substantial negative spillovers on other treated job seekers for higher treatment intensities, resulting from increased competition between treated job seekers who apply for similar vacancies.

Keywords: unemployment; job search; job search assistance; public policy; field experiments; information frictions; occupational recommendations; online advice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D83 J23 J62 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2022-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-exp, nep-hrm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp15830.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15830

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().