Self-regulation Training and Job Search Behavior: A Natural Field Experiment Within an Active Labor Market Program

Eva Berger, Henning Hermes, Guenther Koenig, Felix Schmidt and Daniel Schunk

No 13/2019, Discussion Paper Series in Economics from Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics

Abstract: Existing evidence suggests that self-regulation plays an important role in the job search process and labor market reintegration of unemployed persons. We conduct a randomized natural field experiment embedded in an established labor market reactivation program to examine the causal effect of conducting self-regulation training on the job search behavior of long-term unemployed participants. Our treatment involves teaching a self-regulation strategy based on mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII). We find that the treatment has a positive effect on the quality of application documents as well as on the probability of participants submitting their documents on time. However, we do not find a positive effect on labor market reintegration—possibly due to the short-term horizon of the data. Because the intervention is very low cost, a rollout to other programs might have high individual and social rates of return.

Keywords: active labor market policy; natural field experiment; job search behavior; unemployed; self-regulation; non-cognitive skills (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 J24 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2019-06-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp and nep-lma
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