Vacancy Referrals, Job Search, and the Duration of Unemployment: A Randomized Experiment

Per Engström, Patrik Hesselius and Bertil Holmlund ()

No 3991, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: One goal of the public employment service is to facilitate matching between unemployed job seekers and job vacancies; another goal is to monitor job search so as to bring search efforts among the unemployed in line with search requirements. The referral of job seekers to vacancies is one instrument used for these purposes. We report results from a randomized Swedish experiment where the outcome of referrals is examined. To what extent do unemployed individuals actually apply for the jobs they are referred to? Does information to job seekers about increased monitoring affect the probability of applying and the probability of leaving unemployment? The experiment indicates that a relatively large fraction (one third) of the referrals do not result in job applications. Information about intensified monitoring causes an increase in the probability of job application, especially among young people. However, we find no significant impact on the duration of unemployment.

Keywords: vacancy referral; job matching; job search; randomized experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C99 J64 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2009-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published - published in: Labour, 2012, 26 (4), 419–435

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp3991.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Vacancy Referrals, Job Search, and the Duration of Unemployment: A Randomized Experiment (2012)
Working Paper: Vacancy Referrals, Job Search, and the Duration of Unemployment: A Randomized Experiment (2009)
Working Paper: Vacancy referrals, job search and the duration of unemployment: a randomized experiment (2009)
Working Paper: Vacancy Referrals, Job Search, and the Duration of Unemployment: A Randomized Experiment (2009)
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:dp3991

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 ().