Data and code for: How wage announcements affect job search - a field experiment

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Michèle Belot, Cornell University, University of Edinburgh; Philipp Kircher, Cornell University, UC Louvain, University of Edinburgh; Paul Muller, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
ReplicationPackage_v2			03/07/2022 05:45:AM

Project Citation:

Belot, Michèle, Kircher, Philipp, and Muller, Paul. Data and code for: How wage announcements affect job search - a field experiment. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2022. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-09-28. https://doi.org/10.3886/E152721V1

Project Description

Summary: In a field experiment, we study how job seekers respond to posted wages by assigning wages randomly to pairs of otherwise similar vacancies in a large number of professions. Higher wages attract significantly more interest. Still, a non-trivial number of applicants only reveal an interest in the low wage vacancy. With a complementary survey, we show that external raters perceive higher wage jobs as more competitive. These findings qualitatively support core predictions of theories of directed/competitive search, though in the simplest calibrated model, applications react too strongly to the wage. We discuss extensions such as on-the-job search or partially directed search that rectify this.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Vacancy data; Randomized experiment; Wage posting

JEL Classification:
      C93 Field Experiments
      J31 Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
      J63 Labor Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
      J64 Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

Geographic Coverage: Scotland

Time Period(s): 9/1/2013 – 12/1/2013 (Wave 1); 1/15/2014 – 4/15/2014 (Wave 2)

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Published Versions

V1 [2022-09-28]

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