Directed Search, Wages, and Non-wage Amenities: Evidence from an Online Job Board

Verónica Escudero, Hannah Liepmann and Damian Vergara (damiv@umich.edu)
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Damian Vergara: University of Michigan

No 17211, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We leverage rich data from a prominent online job board in Uruguay to assess directed search patterns in job applications, focusing on posted wages and advertised non-wage amenities. We find robust evidence of directed search based on posted wages in the cross-section, with stark heterogeneity by occupation: the wage-application correlation is driven by vacancies attached to lower-skill occupations, with applications to vacancies attached to higher-skill occupations showing no responsiveness to posted wages. By applying text analysis to the job ads, we elicit advertised non-wage amenities and find evidence of directed search based on non-wage amenities. Applications to vacancies attached to lower-skill occupations are consistent with lexicographic application preferences: amenities predict applications to these vacancies only when wages are not posted. Finally, we exploit industry-by-occupation minimum wage variation to demonstrate that the observed occupational heterogeneity in directed search patterns is supported by quasi-experimental difference-in-differences estimates of the impact of wages on job applications.

Keywords: minimum wages; non-wage amenities; directed search; vacancies; wages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J31 J32 J62 J63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 107 pages
Date: 2024-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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