The More You Know: Information Effects on Job Application Rates in a Large Field Experiment

Laura Gee ()

No 10372, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper presents the results from a 2.3 million person field experiment that varies whether or not a job seeker sees the number of applicants for a job posting on a large job posting website, LinkedIn. This intervention increases the likelihood that a person will finish an application by 3.5%. Women have a larger increase in their likelihood of finishing an application than men. Overall, adding this information to a job posting may offer a light-touch way to both increase application rates and alter the diversity of the applicant pool.

Keywords: ambiguity aversion; risk aversion; gender; big data; social information; labor search; field experiment; uncertainty; herding; competition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D01 D83 J21 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2016-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published in: Management Science, 2018, 65 (5), 2077 - 2094

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